Slave Turned Guardian
by DiscipleOfAnime
Summary: Seven years passed since he was a slave and upon saving a family that turns out to be not only royalty, but they are of the Higurashi family that have ruled over the kingdom for centruies. He goes from slave to a guardian. Chapter 7 is up!
1. I Can't Be Your Bodyguard

Chapter 1: I Can't Be Your Bodyguard

Well this will be my third fanfic, but my first fanfic in the Inuyasha universe. I already have two stories under Naruto and they are doing pretty well. I read a lot of Inuyasha fanfictions and I like a lot of them and for awhile I've had this idea for a Inuyasha story so I decided to try and see if people would like it and if I didn't upload it I was pretty sure it would annoy the hell out of me until I did so.

** •Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•**

The country was torn between four major kingdoms, Artemis (Forest Land), Aether (Mountain Land), Nesoi (Islands), and Mnemosyne (Valley Country).

The Nesoi country or the Nesoi Island is separated from the other three kingdoms which reside on the mainland and has been in a state of peace for one hundred and ten years so far and is separated from the mainland by 750 miles of water and the land itself is 2,941,299 sq. miles and the country itself is amongst the more wealthy and has flourished the most out of the four kingdoms by using fishing, farming, and excavating a small mountain area with a rare metal. Most of the country's demons reside in the ocean rather than the land and It's military is a naval fleet that protects the kingdom's ocean leading to Nesoi and a fairly large army that protects the land itself should they find their land conquered.

Artemis is the largest of the four kingdoms with about 3,704,427 sq. miles, but it is one of the more dangerous with the civil wars that have devastated the country. Most of the land is covered in a deep forest with the trees towering over most mansions and contains most of the land's demons. Despite the war torn country it has the strongest and largest military out of the four and the more brilliant inventors.

Aether is the more smaller of the kingdoms at about 519,734 sq. miles. The land is the more political and makes it's wealth through the largest series of mines that surround the kingdom which resides in a heavily defended mountain area and it's because of this defense that the country has never been invaded by the other kingdoms nor has it had any involvement in the wars that occurred during the years. Most of the countries mineral materials are mined from this country in large quantities despite Nesoi having the rarer of the rock minerals, but because of the countries larger and more supplied mines is why the country has never had to worry about financial issues and use the slave trade of demons to mine for the minerals. The downside to the countries belief that they were safe they did have the smallest military of the four kingdoms.

The final and second largest kingdom Mnemosyne that is a valley country with the land ranging about 3,854,085 sq. miles. This kingdom has been the one that would be at war with Artemis kingdom since their founding in an attempt to expand their lands. Mnemosyne is a farming land that supplies the most produce and is home to the second largest military and the greatest tacticians. This kingdom made most of it's time of peace since it's last war with Artemis 76 years ago in creating a wall that separates the kingdom Artemis from Mnemosyne and like Aether it uses the slave trade of not only demons, but humans as well to speed up the building of the wall.

The four kingdoms have since been in peace since Artemis and Mnemosyne came to a yet another understanding, however the inhabitants of both kingdoms, Nesoi, and Aether knew it was a matter of time before the two countries were at each other's throats yet again. Some demons are enslaved and the slavery of the demons is more common in Aether and Mnemosyne while Nesoi doesn't use the slave trade and Artemis uses the demons more as a military using specialized collars that keep the demons in line.

The four kings that rule the four kingdoms are Shuhan Higurashi who rules over the Nesoi Islands and his family has been ruling over the island for as long as the country could recall. Shuhan is to be expecting his first born child in the coming months.

Artemis's ruler is a tyrannical one which is why the kingdom is in such disarray, Senshu Onigumo and his family only recently came into power and his son is next in line for the throne and is just as vicious as his father, Naraku Onigumo.

The ruler of the mountain kingdom Aether is Saiseki Shikigami and is the oldest ruler of the kingdoms and has had the most experience as one since he is the first known demon ruler of the four kingdoms and it was he who started the demon slave trade.

Suzuran Misora is the empress, queen, or ruler of the land Mnemosyne and is the only known female ruler of any of the kingdoms and despite her undying beauty which many believe she is a demon at first is because she once saved a demon witch and it was because of that good deed that she was granted eternal beauty until her death at which point her body will turn into it's rightful age, however she is still in her prime years.

(I'm pulling this part out of air)

** •Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•**

With the summaries of the four kingdoms, it's rulers, and the state the four kingdoms are left in, we begin our story in Mnemosyne where the two rulers Suzuran Misora and Shuhan Higurashi who finished their business with each other which left the Higurashi family and it's escorts heading to the Mnemosyne port, but they were far off from the port since Suzuran's castle was located in the center of her kingdom and was a two day's travel from kingdom's central city and the city where the port resides in.

The Higurashi caravans were being heavily guarded by their royal army. The center of the major group contained the caravan with the king Shuhan and his pregnant queen Nodoka Higurashi. The queen was seven months into her pregnancy and wasn't to thrilled with going overseas this soon, but she didn't wish to reside in her home any longer.

The king Shuhan is a fairly tall man, brown eyes, straight short brown hair, chin hair, a slightly darker color skin than his wife, and he was adorned in a very expensive red kimono. His wife Nodoka had short ebony black hair, brown eyes, and like her husband she was wearing a very expensive loose fitted red kimono that hid her seven month belly well.

Shuhan was known by both his family, friends, guards, overall everyone in his kingdom knew how carefree and kind he was, but when situations called for it he could be emotionless, but during these times of piece he's been more carefree and happy especially concerning the fact that he was going to be a dad soon. He often wondered if this was how his dad felt when he and his siblings were close to being born.

His sister already had a daughter, his two month newborn niece Sango Kawashima who took up her father's name instead of the Higurashi name. His sister was with grief as her husband and his entourage were killed on a diplomatic mission to Artemis. Senshu Onigumo denied any involvement in this attack and suggested that bandits were to blame. This was something Shuhan denied as his brother-in-law was a skilled weapons master and to be killed by run of the mill bandits is impossible, but with no evidence to even point to Senshu as being behind it they had no choice but to accept that he might've been killed by bandits.

His younger brother by two years had his first son, Bankotsu Higurashi who's already going to be one in a few months. His little brother was the Navy fleet commander and was damn good at his position and for a human he carries a giant halberd that would be impossible for an ordinary man to even lift up.

Shuhan was just excited that with both his little brother and sister having their kids that he was about to have his first child as well.

The king was looking from outside the small window of their caravan to his pregnant wife who was rubbing her swollen belly through her kimono. He gently reached his hand over and started to rub his wife's stomach asking her, "Excited? Lady Kaede said that you only have three more months until the baby comes."

"Yes I'm very excited. I've been counting the days until this little one is born." said the excited Nodoka. Shuhan looked out his window again and took a good inhale of the air and said, "The air is a bit salty, yup we're getting closer to the ocean so which means that we'll be home very soon." Nodoka couldn't wait since even though she didn't want to be home, but she couldn't wait to sleep in her own bed… Hormones can sure be annoying for a pregnant woman.

The trip to the town was quiet and it was going very well. The lieutenant who was traveling outside the caravan along with the soldiers kept looking around cautiously and it would remain that way until they reached the town and they would be able to see their Navy Fleet. He came to a stop when he heard some rustling on the side of the road that had a very thick tree line. The lieutenant held his closed hand up signaling everyone to stop. (The soldiers of Nesoi have japanese style red armor)

Once the five caravans containing the king, queen, a two generals, and a three council members came to a halt all the guards came on edge. Shuhan immediately had his wife lay low in case something happens. Soon the two generals walked out of their caravans and one of them asked, "What is it?"

The lieutenant told the general, "I heard a series of sounds in the outlining trees. Sir please go back in your caravan."

One general went back in his caravan while the other took up his samurai helmet and sword and took over shouting, "Okay men we will go at the same pace we've been going, but stay alert!" Everyone agreed and began going at the steady pace they've been going. The lieutenant asked the general, "Was it wise to tell our men to stay alert General Hakan?"

Hakan merely told the young lieutenant, "If someone, a group, or a pack of demons are out there, then they'd use their brains and know that after stopping that we'd be on alert and whether I whispered it to every single soldier here wouldn't change that." The general looked into the tree line that he saw the lieutenant looking in and said, "We'll keep going at our pace. If we rush they might attack sooner rather than later and it'll give me enough time to think of a counter attack."

The lieutenant agreed and followed behind the general. Hakan walked close to the king's caravan next to the window. Sometime during their travel the general heard more and more of the rustling and he put on the bottom half of his mask telling the king, "My lord, I believe that a battle will take place soon. I suggest you allow me and a few soldiers to hold them off and I order the remaining forces to safely guide you and the other council members to the port town."

"Well now general I wouldn't be to happy letting you go and do that on your own, so I'll stay behind as well." said Shuhan. Immediately the queen objected as well as the general, but they had no time to react as a few arrows shot at the caravans and one barely missed the general's head. Hakan spun around and pulling out his sword shouting, "All hands battle positions!"

The Nesoi soldiers pulled out their swords and they saw a gang of bandits on horses charging at them shouting. The second general came out of his caravan and headed for the king's caravan telling Hakan that he'd guard it.

The two forces engaged one another and the horse drawn caravans started to move away quicker to get to town. Shuhan grabbed his katana and despite the protest of his queen he jumped out of the caravan, he then shouted to his second general, "General Choe protect my wife's caravan and make sure that everyone get's to port then send reinforcements! That's an order!"

General Choe gritted his teeth and told the caravan drivers to advance to the town as quickly as possible.

Once out of sight Shuhan joined his men in combat using only one hand he successfully killed all the bandits that dare swing their swords at him. Shuhan saw that his soldiers were far better trained in combat than some robbers who swing their weapons wildly. One bandit tried to stab Shuhan, but he deflected the blade with his sheath than he used his blade and stabbed it into the man's right collar bone severing it.

The bandit screamed in pain and he used his foot and slammed it down onto the man's left arm pinning him to the ground. The bandit looked up and saw the emotionless face of the king Shuhan Higurashi.

The king immediately smiled after he saw the battle was over already and he turned to the man pinned to the ground and said, "Are you aware of that the series of caravans you attacked are of royalty?" The bandit snickered and saw that the rest of the soldiers came over aiming their swords and naginata weapons at his face. He then told the king, "It's a job. We didn't know we attacked royalty, as long as the pay is good then we'd attack regardless."

Hakan stomped his foot down on the man's head demanding, "What was your job?" The bandit began to snicker some more saying, "Our job was to kill Nodoka Higurashi. We don't know who paid us, but you basically left her all alone while the brute of our forces wait further down the-" He was silenced once Shuhan took his blade out of the man's body and successfully severed the man's head from his body in a quick motion.

The general kicked the man's head away and shouted, "To the caravans quickly!" Shuhan was already ahead of everyone running far ahead of his entourage worried for his wife's sake.

* The Caravans *

The five caravans were currently under attack by a larger force of bandits. General Choe was successfully diverting everyone from the queens caravan, but as for the council members their caravans were set afire and they couldn't get out and a few of the soldiers were dead.

Choe heard a series of footsteps running at him from his side and he saw two men wearing ninja attire. One leapt into the air and kicked the general in his chest knocking him away from the caravan. Choe landed some distance away and tried to get back to the queen, but his attacker kept him at bay successfully matching him move for move.

The second ninja wearing nothing but black ninja gear stood in front of the entrance of the queen's caravan and he ripped the door open. There he saw the queen with her arms wrapped around her stomach.

Nodoka saw the man pull out a small tanto sword and she could hear the man's voice clearly, "You die here." She saw him raise his blade and attempted to thrust the blade at her.

She quickly looked away and waited for the eventual end of not only her life, but her unborn child's life as well. Something was off though, she felt no pain, but only a splatter of what she thought was water. Nodoka looked up to her attacker and saw that he was frozen in his mid stabbing motion, but he had a metal blade sticking out of his chest. The man dropped his weapon and was tossed clear away from the entrance by a mysterious figure wearing a hood.

Nodoka saw the hooded figure wearing a sleeveless white coat, a black long sleeve military shirt under that, black combat pants, boots, black leather gloves, a red sash wrapped around his waist. She couldn't see this one's face because of the hood, but she could tell by this one's posture and body size that her savior was a 'he'.

Choe saw the unknown warrior who saved his queen, but the man moved quickly he appeared out of nowhere, stabbed the assassin, and tossed him twenty feet away with relative ease and by those standards he guessed the man a demon. Choe's ninja assassin (love that movie) rushed at the new guy swinging his blade trying to kill avenge the death of his comrade. However the masked fighter dodged quickly and then the general noticed that this hooded man was using a spear weapon and was a master considering how effectively he used it.

The second ninja and this mysterious man engaged in a back and forth battle, but eventually the hooded man grabbed his coat and he ripped it off of himself and tossed it at the ninja. The foolish ninja however jumped the gun and was about to slice through the diversion, but the moment he got close the spear tip of this hooded fighter shot through the coat and hit the ninja in his face killing him instantly.

The bandits, soldiers, the general and Nodoka who was looking out the entrance to the caravan saw what happened. They could clearly see the man now and saw that he had long silver hair, lightly tanned skin, and two dog like ears atop his head, but what stood out was that he had a metal like collar around his neck. He swung his spear with the man still on the blade of the spear tossing the man a number of feet away.

After the bandits saw the ninja fall dead they immediately made a retreat since their aces were killed off so easily. The soldiers didn't bother to follow since there was no honor in killing cowards. Some of the men rushed to the queen's caravan surrounding it so no one got close while the general and the other soldiers surrounded this silver haired man and aimed their weapons at his throat.

The queen rushed out of the caravan, but was careful not to fall shouting, "All of you lower your weapons now!" General Choe shook his head, "I'm sorry my queen, but we know nothing about this man."

Nodoka was next to the general and said, "He saved my life! That's enough to trust him!"

The general was about to try and reason with the queen, but they heard an all too familiar voice, "So this guy saved my wife?"

The entire group looked to the back of the caravans and saw the king, the general, the lieutenant, and the soldiers that remained walking up to them. Shuhan was smiling again and rushed to his wife embracing her, she explained what happened while they were gone. Shuhan raised his open hand to his soldiers signaling them to lower their weapon, which they did reluctantly. Shuhan could see the man's back and said, "I'd like to thank you for saving my queen and my unborn child's life. You have my thanks… um… May I ask your name?"

The silver haired savior turned around and the king and a few of the others saw the man's golden colored eyes. He looked fairly young at least in his early twenties, but the king knew better and guessed that this demon was possibly older than that. After a brief silence he spoke, "My… name is… Inuyasha."

Shuhan smiled and said, "Well Inuyasha again I'd like to-" he was cut short when Inuyasha dropped his spear and fell to his knees unconscious.

As Inuyasha could hear muffled out words he cursed that he let himself fall this easily because he didn't eat anything in a very long time. Before he lost all train of thought he wondered if they would kill him right there… It wouldn't surprise him if they did.

* Sometime Later *

Inuyasha was laying down and was slowly waking up, he tossed and turned for a moment before he opened his eyes and looked around. He saw that the room he was in was fancy, he laid in a comfortable bed, but two things caught his attention. One the ground was moving as if on water and two the king Shuhan was sitting next to his bed starring at him with a smile on his face. He sat up and noticed that he was bandaged up along his stomach and asked, "Where am I?"

Shuhan kept his smile and answered, "Your aboard my ship the Amatsuotome." Inuyasha then thought, 'That explains the strange movement.'

The king asked Inuyasha, "You hungry? I assume that was why you fainted… That or that unsightly gash in your side."

Inuyasha looked away and said, "I got this while hunting, but a few demons attacked me and took me by surprise."

Shuhan put both his elbows on his legs and his hands to his chin resting it on them he said, "Even though your a demon as well you could still die from wounds like that if untreated properly."

The demon looked at the king and asked, "If you know I'm a demon then why help me?"

"Because you saved my wife and my baby. I always say good deeds should be rewarded, but this isn't a good deed… It is a Grand Deed and something like tending to your wound or feeding you is not a good enough a thanks." said the happy Shuhan, "My wife told me of your battling prowess and so did my general. I must say for a slave you fight rather well."

Inuyasha brought his hand to his collar and said, "My previous master taught me to fight in the case he was attacked or couldn't defend himself. He died however from a disease and released me, so I became free." Shuhan pointed to his neck indicating the collar to which Inuyasha replied, "It's a remembrance that it's because of this collar that I lived a great life. Unlike most demons who have a harsh life my master cherished every moment with me up until his death and I cherish the times with not only him, but his family as well."

"That is a fairy tail story." said Shuhan. Inuyasha looked at the king and said, "You don't have to repay me… I just did what my master always told me to do. Help others in danger."

Shuhan stood up and told the demon, "Well regardless of what you say I need to repay you. You saved not just my wife and baby, but you saved mine. If I lost them I don't know what I'd do, so I ask you… as thanks and because of your combat abilities I want you to be my family's bodyguard. You'll be well taken care of and you'll have a home, I could rest easy at night knowing that you'll be there."

Inuyasha frowned and said, "How do you know I'll do such a thing? I could just be putting up a facade so I could get close to you and kill you. I'm sorry, but I just can't be your bodyguard and I don't think I'm the right demon for the job."

Shuhan smiled and said, "Well don't sell yourself short because of your heritage. You can't control race as much as a man can control the color of his skin or the family he's born into. As to answer your question I really don't know, theres something about you that gives off a relaxing aura. Besides the way 'you' talk about your former master and his family shows your loyalty to him long after death and his teachings of kindness reside in you. You don't have to give me your answer now, but I'd like for you to think about it. I'll send someone in later to bring you something to eat." With that the king closed the door leaving Inuyasha in a small room.

He forced himself to stand up and he noticed that his boots, gloves, and shirt are nowhere in sight nor is his spear and he guessed that it was the kings soldiers that asked that his weapon be as far from him as possible. Inuyasha was quite confused as to why the king trusted him this much, as he stated for all the king knew Inuyasha could've been a thief, an assassin, or a number of other things and yet the king took him on his ship, dressed his wounds, is willing to feed him, and is asking him to become a bodyguard. This was out of the ordinary for him for the past seven years.

He limped over to the window and looked out and saw endless blue caused by the ocean and the starry sky with the stars reflecting off of the surface of the water. Out of the corner of the port window he saw another ship just barely out of sight. He knew that since this was the ship the king rides on, then behind this ship was a large fleet to escort the king back home. With nothing else to do and he highly doubted that he'd be allowed to leave the room he sat down on his bed again and could do nothing else but calm his growling stomach.

As if his prayer was answered the door to his room opened up and in walked a short elderly man at at least 2'8'' with a round head with gray hair around the sides, a needle like nose, a small gray mustache, and a formal kimono. Inuyasha immediately knew this man to be a demon. The elderly man was carrying a tray of food and he set it down on the table next to Inuyasha's bed saying, "Hello my name is Myoga Ogata and I'll be serving your food. For dinner here is beef, chopped carrots and potato stew along with bread, and a glass of water. Enjoy."

The younger demon simply nodded and saw Myoga leave his room. Inuyasha cautiously took the bowl of stew and he inhaled it without really tasting it, next the bread was eaten within two good bites and the water was shown no mercy as well. After he was done he put his dishes back on he table and laid back down to relax and get some rest not knowing if this is all a blessing or a trap.

** •Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•**

(A/N)

Hello D.o.A. here! Well what did you all think? Good?… Bad?…. it was Okay?…. Well I'd like to get some feedback either in a review or PM just so I should know if I should continue this story or stop right here. Thank you for giving my story a read and if you read Naruto fanfics check out my two Naruto stories on my profile entitled 'Naruto's Rise' and 'Raised a Criminal'. On another note Inuyasha will get Tessaiga in a later chapter.

-Stay Gold


	2. I'll Be Your Bodyguard

Chapter 2: I'll Be Your Bodyguard

Let me tell you all these things, in this story Inuyasha is a full blooded demon, he is strong both in skill and demonic abilities, and he'll be out of of character, he'll be more relaxed and is a little more open with people. Just wanted to get that out there and if you have any questions feel free to ask in a review or PM and I'll try and answer them when I can.

**•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•**

* Morning: Nesoi Kingdom *

Inuyasha awoke to some harsh waves and it rolled him out of his bed. Groggily he got back up and felt no pain, so he guessed that his injuries now fully healed since he ate and was patched up. He removed his bandages from his body and tossed them on his bed and he could see that the wound he suffered on his side was now gone entirely. His attention was brought to his tiny porthole window when the sound of a bell was going off. Looking out he saw part of a large island that he assumed was the island Nesoi, which meant they were close to the port.

His door opened up and he turned around seeing a older man at least pushing his late forties, he had a thick gray mustache, full head of short gray hair, brown eyes, and a thin scar going down the left side of his face. He was adorned in his Nesoi battle armor.

The elderly man addressed Inuyasha with a bow, "My name is General Hakan Hori. The king and queen wish to speak with you topside, so if you'd please follow me." The general stepped out first and Inuyasha followed behind him.

When they reached the deck he saw the queen sitting at a table drinking some tea and the king was someways away from her using a spear weapon. Upon realization, Inuyasha saw that the weapon the king was using flawlessly was his spear.

Shuhan stopped when he saw Hakan and Inuyasha out of his peripheral vision. One of the men on the ship walked up to the him handing him a towel so he could wipe the sweat off of his face. Shuhan was a few feet away from Inuyasha asking in his polite and happy tone, "How'd you sleep savior?"

The demon dog looked around before answering, "I had a good sleep. The waves are little rougher so it woke me up."

"Yes the waves do get a little more dicey as you near the island and unless you know how to navigate them properly then you could end up farther from Nesoi." Shuhan tossed Inuyasha his spear, "I must say Inuyasha that weapon is a good one."

Inuyasha was holding it and saw that it was indeed his. The spear was 6 foot, 15 1/4''- 440 stainless steel blade with a cast metal Celtic medallion and the black shaft of the spear with cast metal spacers. Inuyasha looked out of hi peripherals and saw that the soldiers on board had their hands on the handle of their swords. To calm everyone's nerves he placed his spear on the ground slowly and then stood straight up.

Nodoka walked over to where her husband, Hakan, and Inuyasha were carrying a carrying smile, "Inuyasha, I know that we haven't given you enough time to think about whether or not you'll stay and be our bodyguard or guardian which ever term you choose, but the reason we asked in the first place was because I wanted you to protect my unborn child."

Inuyasha was surprised and he heard the king say, "Let me elaborate, what my wife means is that our family deals with assassination attempts all the time. I have had assassination attempts on my life all the way till… well a few months ago." The king paused briefly and then continued, "I wanted you to protect my child and possibly teach him or her when they are old enough. I fear for my child's life and human protection only goes so far, but with a demon and dog demon at that I'd feel more at ease knowing that you'd be able to protect my child."

The king and queen let him soak this all up as this was a lot they were asking. Inuyasha ran his hand through his silver hair and asked, "Hypothetically?" The king immediately nodded understanding and letting him continue, "Say I don't say yes. What will happen to me?"

Shuhan sighed, "When we reach port I'll set up small ship to take you back to the mainland if you so wish to stay on Nesoi. You won't be harmed and there will be no hard feelings-" Nodoka stepped in and said, "However we do ask that you dine with us one night as thanks."

Inuyasha turned and started pacing for a moment. Nodoka said to him, "I know we are asking a lot, but every parent wishes to die knowing their children will be safe, they lived a long life, and that they make the right choices. That's all I want for my child."

He stopped pacing and he looked at the queen with unsure eyes. He debated this for awhile of whether to stay or go. The bell sound he heard earlier got louder and louder indicating the island was extremely close and the time to give his decision drew ever closer. Turning to meet the eyes of the king and queen he said, "May I attend this dinner and give you my answer then, that way I'll have thought about this further."

Shuhan and Nodoka smiled and told him yes. They all heard a voice shout from the ship, "We will be docking very soon! Prepare you belongings!"

Nodoka realized at that moment, "Oh yes." she looked to a maid who was standing off someways incase the queen needed something, "Would you mind and go fetch Inuyasha's things?" The main bowed and left immediately to go get the items. Inuyasha watched her leave and then looked to the queen asking, "Why are my things?"

Hakan said in a grumpy tone, "The queen was most gracious and stayed up fixing your shirt and saving what she could of your coat. Be grateful." Inuyasha looked back at the general and sensed the change in the mood. Shuhan told his wife, "Well we'll be home soon and you can see Sango very soon."

Nodoka was ecstatic at wanting to see her little niece. Inuyasha saw everyone was moving to bring the ship to port and how excited everyone was to be home. The maid later returned with Inuyasha's shirt, coat, gloves, boots, and his red sash.

The large ship docked and many of the soldiers moved to clear a path to the caravan that would escort the king and queen to the castle. As everyone filed off of the ship, Inuyasha put on his attire that was returned to him and then picking up his weapon he noticed the two generals were close by him and he didn't need to make any assumptions as to why they were close by.

As they left the ship the dog demon looked around and saw giant crowd of townspeople celebrating the king and queen's return back home. Looking over the town he saw that it was a busy fishing town and the large castle was visible from where he was standing. Setting foot on land the king waved to his people and made his way with his wife in had to their carriage that would take them home.

One of the generals walked up to the king and told him that Inuyasha should walk alongside the carriage with the rest of the soldiers. Shuhan and Nodoka were going to protest, but Inuyasha told them he didn't mind and would feel comfortable to let the soldiers rest at ease knowing that he was within everyone's eyes. The walk to the castle was a short one as many of the citizens made way for the large escort service to the castle.

Looking up at the massive castle Inuyasha had to say that he was impressed, he's seen castles belonging to council men and other men and women of great importance, but the rulers' castles were much larger.

The carriage and the soldiers passed the massive gates leading into the castle and stopped at the main entrance way. Leading up the path to the door were two rows, one row were the butlers and the other was the maids. Shuhan and Nodoka stepped out of the carriage and were greeted by all the servants who said at the same time, "Welcome home your majesty!"

Shuhan announced, "I like to thank you all for watching the castle in my absence." Shuhan looked to Inuyasha and made a head movement for him to follow. Before Inuyasha stepped forward, Hakan grabbed Inuyasha by his shoulder and held out his hand signifying for Inuyasha to relieve his weapon. Not wanting to make commotion Inuyasha gladly handed his spear over to the general then followed the Higurashi family into the castle.

Nodoka called out to the head maid who was wearing a black and white kimono, she was forty years old as she had a few strands of gray hairs, "Kaede, could you please set up a guest room for our friend here and set a meal for him when lunch and dinner is served in the dinning hall."

Kaede smiled and replied, "Anything for ye my queen. It shall be done quickly and promptly." Nodoka smiled and continued walking with Inuyasha following them.

The trio walked down a series of halls until they came to a stop outside one of the many rooms. Shuhan slid the shoji door open and the three walked into the room that was a family room. Inside were three adults, a baby, and a one year old boy.

The only man in the room looked almost identical to Shuhan, except his hair was longer and tied in a pony tail, he was adorning a deep red kimono with flower designs on the right sleeve. There was a woman not to far from him who was holding a very young boy, the woman had a pink kimono with the same flower design as the man, she had long black hair, black eyes and a very nice skin complexion.

The little boy was wearing a kimono similar to the man, he had long black hair with the length of it braided, he wore a red and white kimono.

The other woman sat alone, her hair was brown hair that reached to the base of her back, brown eyes, and was wearing a kimono with two color designs of light pink and light red. Holding in her arms was a baby wrapped in a pink blanket and you could see brown hair. Nodoka ventured into the room and sat next to the woman holding the baby, "Oh I missed little Sango. How are you holding up Hana?"

Hana was the late wife of the former general who served her brother and she took up his name Kawashima. Hana replied to her sister-in-law, "Sango's been restless, but I think I can manage with her."

The other woman walked over with her child sitting next to Nodoka on the three person couch, "How was the trip?"

Nodoka looked at her other sister-in-law answering, "It wasn't a joyful one Satsuki."

Shuhan's brother walked over after noticing Inuyasha standing behind him, "Welcome back brother and who is our guest?"

Shuhan walked up behind Inuyasha and patted him on the back saying, "This here is Inuyasha, he saved Nodoka on our trip back home and as thanks I asked him to have dinner with us and to rest himself." Shuhan pointed to each person introducing everyone, "Inuyasha, this is my brother Takeshi and his wife Satsuki Higurashi. The little guy with Satsuki is their son Bankotsu. The lovely woman sitting next to Nodoka is my sister Hana and her daughter Sango Kawashima. Everyone this is Inuyasha."

Inuyasha gave them all a weak wave and said, "It's a pleasure to meet all of you."

Bankotsu wobbled to his father and hid behind his leg peeking out at Inuyasha. Takeshi smiled and held out his hand for Inuyasha to shake it and not to be rude Inuyasha shook his hand immediately. Shuhan invited Inuyasha to have a seat while they sat and talked about the travel to Mnemosyne and before they could continue any farther, lunch was called.

The family including Inuyasha left the room and into the dinning room. Taking their seats they were greeted with a fairly large table of food and after everyone sat they said a silent prayer and began eating. Shuhan told his brother and the rest of the family how they came to meet Inuyasha. Impressed with how the battle was described, Takeshi said to Inuyasha, "You must be a very skilled warrior to have defeated two ninjas who were able to get General Choe's attention and divert him from getting to Nodoka. Bravo."

Inuyasha looked at Takeshi and thanked him for the complement. Hana asked Inuyasha, "Please forgive me if this is a rude question, but since you are a demon you must be at a fairly high age as demons age much more slowly than humans. How old are you really?" Inuyasha didn't mind, "It's not rude at all, to be honest I'm still a kid by demon standards since I'm 72 years old."

Nodoka chuckled saying, "And yet you don't look a day over twenty." The dog demon rubbed the back of his head nervously and took small bites out of his meal. Inuyasha watched as this happy family talked amongst themselves about what they missed while the other was out and occasionally they would ask Inuyasha a few questions about his travels since being released as a slave and as a free demon. He could tell though that they wanted to ask questions about his past, but all withheld from asking him.

As lunch was coming to an end the women took their leave to go have some women time and they took the very defiant Bankotsu with them. After they left Shuhan got up from his seat and said, "Brother, Inuyasha, would you two accompany me to the garden?" Both men stood up and followed him out of the castle and into a rose garden where they had a perfect view of sun's rays reflecting off of the vast ocean.

Takeshi took a seat on a bench beside the rose bushes taking in the sites. Inuyasha leaned on a pillar that was there for design and Shuhan remained standing looking at the ocean.

The king turned to look at the two with him saying, "Things are getting worse. Akiko is supposedly killed on a diplomatic mission to Artemis, my wife was targeted by assassins, and we lost three council members on our way back home. Someone is out to ruin Nesoi and I wanna find out who it is, but things will get rougher. This means that it's not just my life that's being targeted now. We all have to be on alert."

Takeshi responds, "Yes, but being on guard for the rest of our lives isn't exactly healthy for us. I mean looking behind our back every second of the day isn't how I want to spend my life." Shuhan held his hands up saying, "That's not what I mean brother, it refers to when we leave the castle grounds."

After a moments silence Shuhan looked at Inuyasha asking him, "Inuyasha, I know it's impolite to ask so soon, but you can see the trouble we are dealt with. I wouldn't mind if I was targeted by assassins, but I fear that they will attack my family now and I can't let that happen. I've seen many demons in my life and almost everyone of them have shown their bloodthirsty nature all except you and a few others."

Inuyasha was still leaning against the pillar when he asks, "Your majesty I understand how you fell, but you don't know what I've done in my past and what I had to do to humans and demons alike in order to survive. I'm not proud of the life I've lived after my master died."

Shuhan walked over to Inuyasha asking, "Then tell me of your past so that I can better understand."

Inuyasha didn't like talking about his past, but what was the harm of telling the king? If he knew then he would give up on asking him to be a bodyguard. Inuyasha sighed and said, "Okay I'll tell you."

He walked and sat down on a bench opposite side from where Takeshi was sitting.

"As far back as I know I was brought up by a small family in Artemis in a very small village. I was five years old and my master was a former soldier for Artemis and he was fairly young and just married. He already had a few demon slaves to help with the farming, but he though one more couldn't hurt to help out." Inuyasha explained. "My master showed compassion to me only and it was him who taught me to fight, reading, and many other things he was like my father. When he bought me he was twenty-five years old and they had their first child twelve years later and I was tasked with protecting him. Twenty-three years went by and my master had succumbed to a disease that claimed his wife a few years before, but before he died he released me of my collar saying that I am no longer a slave and he asked if I could still watch over and protect his son. I agreed."

Inuyasha took a good breath and continued, "My master's son was named Yajima and he married a year after his father died to a woman named Kikyou. Both of them were twenty-four when they finally married and everyone in the village liked her, but I didn't trust this woman at all, I don't know why but I just couldn't trust her there was something about her. Anyway twenty years went by and I could see that this woman Kikyou over those years was just so obsessed with beauty that she'd spend endless hours in the mirror trying to look like she used to, I felt sorry for this woman since not even her own family came to see her anymore. Aside from her everything was going great, but time was not kind to Yajima and like Kikyou they were growing ever older."

He took a brief pause, "That's when it went down hill. A man came to us wearing a baboon pelt and he began spouting useless words and convinced Kikyou that he had a way to make her young again something that she wanted, but he said it would take a year to make. I begged Yajima to send this man away, but he was foolish and allowed the man to stay in the extra room. For a year this man named Naraku would leave for a few days then come back and confine himself in his room. I continued with my observation of him and Kikyou and noticed that the two talked more often then they should. Once the year came to an end is when it all happened."

Inuyasha clenched his fists to the point of his knuckles turning white, "Artemis soldiers came and ransacked the small hill village taking whatever they wanted and it was Naraku who told the soldiers about this small village. They killed any and all who got in their way and Kikyou made a deal with Naraku that if she sold out the village for youth than she would marry him. She betrayed Yajima for her own selfish desire. I fought against the soldiers, but was defeated by a sorceress named Tsubaki who paralyzed me and forced me to watch as Yajima was killed by Kikyou. I was enraged and all I remember was blacking out and when I awoke I was soaked head to toe in blood and around me were bodies of Artemis soldiers, a spear in my right, and a sword in the other."

Inuyasha calmed down some and continued, "I went back and saw Yajima laying on the floor with blood surrounding his body. For two days I dug graves for all the villagers burying men, women, children… even babies and for the dead soldiers I set their bodies ablaze and I knew Naraku and Kikyou were still alive since I didn't see their bodies. I failed my job to protect the only family I had left and so went to what was left of my home and I found my master's old military uniform, master's spear, the collar, I took some rations and departed from the village and I haven't gone back for fear of my master's spirt being disappointed with me for not protecting Yajima." Inuyasha stopped and slumped in his seat.

Takeshi and Shuhan had listened intently on his story and the betrayal he's suffered and for the ones he's lost. Shuhan said, "The Onigumo family is a backstabbing lot. Naraku is next in line for the throne when his father dies and I am positive that the two had something to do with my brother-in-law's death, but now I see how far their tyranny goes."

Inuyasha stood up and said, "Now you see why I cannot be a guardian or bodyguard. If I failed once, then I'll surely fail again and it's best that I go now." Shuhan held his hand up for Inuyasha to wait, but Inuyasha said, "I couldn't save a single life, so how could I protect anyone."

Shuhan put his hand on Inuyasha's shoulder saying, "But you did save a life, three to be precise. You save my wife, my child and it hasn't even begun life, and mine. I'm willing to throw my pride away to go so far as to beg-"

Immediately Inuyasha cut in not wanting to see the king reduce himself to begin, "Majesty please don't…. If it means that much to you for me to be a bodyguard again… (takes a deep breath then exhales) then I'll be a bodyguard again." He saw the king's eyes light up and he thanked Inuyasha with a pat on the back and some kind words.

The three were interrupted when Hakan walked into the garden wearing a red kimono, "Sire, there is a meeting going on soon that has been requested by a council member. They sent me to find you and Admiral Takeshi as well."

The brother's nodded and began to follow the general, but Shuhan stopped and told Inuyasha, "Again Inuyasha thank you for this and I'll make sure your life here is a memorable one, but do you think you could find my wife and make sure she doesn't do anything she's not suppose to in her current condition." more of a request than a question.

The dog demon merely nodded weakly and watched the king, admiral, and general walk away back into the castle. Inuyasha sighed and felt like he was tricked by the king, but he shrugged it off and he went inside and once he was inside he started to sniff the air and he found the queen's scent lingering in the air. Following it so he could do what he said he'd do.

He didn't get lost as long as he found the source of the queen's scent, he had noticed on the boat then that she had two distinct scents around her and he assumed it was because of the baby. Walking down some halls he stopped in front of the shoji door and he knocked on the wooden frame and he heard a soft voice say, "Come in."

Inuyasha slid the door open and saw Nodoka and Satsuki were sitting inside a family oriented room and were talking to each other and he saw Bankotsu asleep in his mother's lap. Nodoka was rubbing her stomach and she asked, "Oh what brings you here Inuyasha?" Inuyasha stood at the door and replied, "I accepted the job to be the family's bodyguard. I feel like I was tricked in doing it really?"

Nodoka and Satsuki gave a light giggle and Nodoka said, "Let me guess he laid out the begging excuse right?" He didn't need to answer since nodoka saw the shocked look on his face and she explained, "Sorry, he means well it's just that he pulled that move on me, we were so in love with each other and he wanted to marry me but I felt that I was too young. He kept asking me and asking me and one day he'd say he'd fall to his knees and beg me in front of everyone who was around, I didn't wish to see him reduce himself to that so I accepted his marriage proposal and I must say it was the best decision I made."

The silver haired demon ran his hand through his hair saying, "Well I was done in by it." Satsuki asked Nodoka, "So is the baby moving yet?"

Nodoka placed both her hands on her stomach and said, "Yes this little one is performing for me since he or possibly she is doing acrobatics inside me." Satsuki leaned foreword and placed a hand on Nodoka's stomach feeling the baby move. Nodoka asked Inuyasha, "You wanna feel?"

Inuyasha shook his head no, but Nodoka insisted and he initially gave in and walked over to her and he placed his hand on the front of her stomach and almost immediately he feels a faint kick or a punch, he honestly wasn't sure if that was either a punch or a kick. He was amazed since this was the first time he's felt something so small react like that. Inuyasha then asked the queen, "Do you have any names on what you'll name the baby?"

Satsuki was also very interested and leaned in to hear as well. Nodoka brought her hand to her chin and said, "Well we decided if it's a boy then his name will be Sota and if it's a girl we were thinking of Kagome. What do you two think of the name?" Both Inuyasha and Satsuki agreed that those were great names. Inuyasha took a seat on a one seater couch and listened as the two women talked about the coming months when the baby was born and how they both betted on if it was going to be a boy or girl.

* Evening: Council Room *

Sitting in a dimly lit room at a round table was the Shuhan, Takeshi, Hakan, and Choe along with several other men. Shuhan told the council, "Not only have we lost a very important general some months back we also lost the council members who went with us to the meeting in Mnemosyne and a few of our soldiers were killed as well."

Takeshi told everyone, "My brother has come to the conclusion that it's Artemis's ruler that is out to start a war and quite frankly I agree." One of the council members said, "Yes but without hard evidence to prove otherwise then there is nothing we can do. Starting a war based off of no evidence will lead Nesoi to ruin."

Another council member voiced, "We also heard my king that you brought back a demon during your travels and not just any demon, but one of human characteristics." Shuhan immediately not liking where this was going, "Yes we have. I have asked him to be the family bodyguard since current events have forced this."

"Yes, but we could use him. Demons with the human appearance are a rarity and they are always notoriously strong. Case in point the ruler of Aether, Saiseki Shikigami who's rise to power was a vicious one. We could use this demon to our advantage." said one of the council men.

General Choe spoke out afterward, "Yes that is true sir, however demons can rarely be trusted and most revert to their primal instincts and giving him entrance into the castle could be costly."

Shuhan spoke up immediately saying, "We are leaving this topic immediately! He is not some weapon that you think you can control, he has a will and right to live like the rest of us! If he was the cold hearted demon that most of you think he is then he would've killed my wife and the the soldiers after dispatching the ninjas! I will hear no more on this, Nesoi is a strong nation with the greatest Naval fleet and a military that would gladly give their lives for the people and I dare Artemis to try and think they could conquer us!"

Everyone was shocked at the king's outburst at defending a demon. Shuhan rubbed the back of his head telling all of them, "Now if you'll excuse me I wish to relax since it has been sometime since I have been in my own home." He stood up and as he walked away he told them all, "Meeting adjourned."

* Family Room *

The king asked the maids as to which room his wife was in and he found it, walking inside he saw his wife looking at the fireplace and he saw Inuyasha sitting on the couch opposite of her watching the fireplace as well. Both noticed Shuhan walking in and Nodoka taps her hand on the seat next to her for him to sit and once he does. He intertwines his hands in hers and he places a kiss on her forehead. Inuyasha smiles at the scene in front of him and understanding how much him being a bodyguard means to the king.

Shuhan looks at Inuyasha and tells him, "Thank you again Inuyasha for doing this." Inuyasha smiled and said, "Thank you as well for saving me as well and for giving me a place to live."

Nodoka told him, "It's the most we could do for what you've done and I'm positive you'll be happy here." There was a knock at the door and in walks in the demon Inuyasha saw named Myoga. The flee politely told the three, "Your majesty dinner will be served soon." All three stood up and headed back to the den for dinner and then to sleep.

* A Few Hours Later *

Inuyasha walked into a large room that was nicely decorated and behind him was Kaede who lead him into the room. She said to the demon, "The king requested your room be close by theirs incase something God forbid anything does, but should something happen that you'd be close by." Looking around his room he took off his gloves, boots, the red sash, and coat and placed them on a desk chair that was by the wall. He sat down on his bed and he told the elderly woman, "Thank you for escorting me to my room."

Kaede bowed and she turned to leave closing the door as she did so, but kept it cracked saying to him, "It's good to see ye again Inuyasha." His head shot up when she said that and heard the door close all the way. Wondering what she meant he made it a point to ask her later. Taking off his militant shirt and a white undershirt he laid them at the foot of his bed and slid under his covers of his huge bed. The room was quite cold, but that was to be expected when living close to the ocean with the ocean breeze coming on land.

He turned so he was looking at the ceiling and thought about the past few days from how he was a wondering slave to a guardian in the corse of forty-eight hours. Laying his head on his pillow his eyes grew heavy and he eventually fell asleep wondering what tomorrow will bring.

•**Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•**

(A/N)

The next chapter will be a kind of timeskip of a week before Nodoka gives birth. I will try and get the next chapter up as soon as I can, but only when I have free time to write which has dwindled down to usually two hours and in those two hours I'm sleeping. I hope you all like this chapter and I will continue writing for this story despite it's popularity. Thank you all for reading!

-Stay Gold


	3. Bodyguard meets Princess

Chapter 3: Bodyguard meets Princess

Okay chapter three is up and I hope everyone likes how this one tured out. It kind of turned out as another transitional chapter, but I did my best on this chapter and I'm glad I got it out on the floor for everyone to read. Please enjoy.

**•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•**

* Morning: Higurashi Castle *

Inuyasha opened his eyes to realize he was sleeping in a very comfortable bed. At first he was confused as to why he was there, but then the memories of yesterday returned and how he agreed to be the bodyguard for the Higurashi family. Getting up from his bed he walked into his bathroom, walking inside he was impressed with the size of the bathtub/shower. The only problem was that he only had one set of clothes and when he was on his own he would have to do his own laundry and now that he would be now living in this castle he would need more than just his military clothes. He decided that he'll need to go into town to go and get some.

There was a knock at his door, he walked out of his bathroom and called out, "Come in." His door opened revealing Kaede, the elderly woman told Inuyasha, "The king has requested that you join him and his family for breakfast." Inuyasha nodded and he stopped Kaede as she made way to leave asking, "Kaede? Might I ask why you said that it was good to see me again? What did you mean by that?"

Kaede closed the door and put on a happy smile, "It has been many years since we last met. Although I don't blame ye, I was still a child when me and my family left the village." Inuyasha brought his hand to his chin searching through his memories and was finally hit with the realization, "Are you little Kaede?"

"Little? That's no longer the case." said Kaede. Inuyasha was stunned and asked trying to find his words, "Ho-, whe-? I mean what happened to you guys after you left the village?"

Kaede sat down in his desk chair, "A lot has happened and I heard about my sister's betrayal of the village and the lives lost during those days. Our father couldn't stand what Kikyou was becoming, so mother, father and myself left the village trying to leave Kikyou behind, but in doing so we doomed the village to ruin."

Inuyasha sat down cross legged in front of her saying, "You all didn't know what was to happen. None of you were to blame for Kikyou's mistake." Kaede smiled and said, "You still look the same as you did when we left the village. Times were rough on the three of us, but we were able to catch a boat and came here and my mother and myself became maids for the Higurashi family. Life was good, but father died from an illness and mother later from the same illness. I was brought up here and I had taken care of Shuhan and his siblings and I must say that these have been the best years of my life."

Happy to hear that everything turned out okay for her in the end he said, "Life hasn't been so kind to me however. Staying alive is difficult when racism against demons is at an all time high and finding a place to rest even for a moment is a task on it's own." Kaede stood up and told him, "Well you won't have to worry about that here. Slave demons are an extreme rarity and I'm positive that you'll live a happy life here with the Higurashi family. Now lets go before your breakfast gets cold."

Standing up Inuyasha put on only his boots and his military shirt. Following Kaede out of his room and toward the dinning room.

Kaede opened the door and Inuyasha saw the whole family there waiting and their plates still full. Inuyasha immediately asked, "Have you been waiting for me all this time?" Shuhan simply nodded, "It would've been rude to start eating without you."

Completely surprised Inuyasha told them, "You didn't have to. I mean there was no need to wait for someone like-" Nodoka stopped him saying, "Nonsense, now come sit down and lets all eat." Inuyasha walked over and sat down at the table next to little Bankotsu who was starring intently at him. Satsuki told Inuyasha, "He's taken a liking to you Inuyasha."

Inuyasha let a small smile form on his lips telling Satsuki, "I've only been here for a day and I already have a friend it seems, no that's not right. All of you have shown me nothing but kindness despite knowing so little about me." Hana told him, "Well we do hope you'll stay with us for a long time. Lately this home has felt a little dull, but you seem to give off a comforting and protecting aura."

"She is right Inuyasha we all feel a little bit safer with you around, I hope that you don't think us crazy for saying that." said Nodoka. Inuyasha shook his head saying, "Not at all."

Shuhan smiled and told them, "Well let's not let this breakfast get any colder than it already has." Everyone agreed and grabbed each other's hand to say their blessings.

The whole family said the blessings and started to eat their meal. Inuyasha watched and listened as the whole family talked amongst themselves. Nodoka, Satsuki, and Hana talked amongst themselves and he saw as the king and his brother talked to one another about the naval fleet. Images of when his master, family, and himself sat at a dinner table like this and would talk well after their food was eaten.

Inuyasha was hesitant in eating his food since he was trying to make sense of all these emotions that he hasn't felt since he lived with his master's family. Feeling a lump in his throat he could feel a cold tear run down the left side of his face and he was glad that no one had seen it.

He wiped his eye quickly, but Shuhan saw Inuyasha do so and said, "Bug?" Inuyasha nodded happily and said, "Yeah… it was just a bug." Nodoka and and her husband looked at each other knowing full well that it wasn't a bug. Inuyasha slowly began to eat into his food and he started talking with the little Bankotsu beside him. Kaede watched the whole scene even catching that tear coming from the dog demon thinking, 'Don't worry you'll find peace here Inuyasha.' The elderly woman headed down the hallway to continue her duties as head maid.

* Three Months Later: 10 o'clock p.m. *

Screams could be heard from the other side of the door. Shuhan was pacing back and forth in front of said door biting his fingernails. Takeshi, Bankotsu, and Inuyasha who was holding baby Sango sat outside the room with the king watching as he was pacing. They had been waiting out there for a very long time and it shows since the carpet underneath Shuhan's feet was well worn out from him pacing back and forth.

Inuyasha had Sango cradled in his left arm and he watched as she kept grabbing his long silver hair laughing every time he used his right hand to pull it away and dangle it in her face. Bankotsu sat by Inuyasha giggling himself as he saw Inuyasha mess with the little girl. The screams were usually short and somewhat loud along with a number of other noises could be heard. The humans in the area couldn't hear what was being said, but Inuyasha could hear, but he drowned out the noise not wanting to invade privacy.

Satsuki, Hana, Kaede, and a number of other nurses were in the room helping the queen deliver her first child. Takeshi told his brother, "Would you relax. Trust me everything will be fine, Kaede is in there and she's the best midwife on this side of the Nesoi." Shuhan laughed a bit nervously responding to his little brother, "I can't help it. Besides your one to talk about staying calm."

Shuhan could recall his little brother leaning against the door with his ear basically glued to the door the entire time Satsuki was giving birth. Inuyasha kept dangling his hair in front of Sango listening to her give out a baby laugh as she tried to grab his hair, "Women can endure a lot of pain."

Takeshi agreed, "I'd have to agree with you there. There are somethings men can do, but none of which include child birth." The men let out a small chuckle of amusement, but then Inuyasha had just noticed something. He brought his hand up and told them, "I don't hear anything."

Immediately Shuhan shot over to the door and leaned his ear on the wooden door listening in and could barely hear muffled noises. He backed up when he heard the door handle jiggle and open, peeking out was Hana who said, "Shuhan come in and see. The rest of you remain out here." Takeshi, Inuyasha, and Bankotsu nodded and remained seated while Shuhan walked inside nervous about this.

The door closed and they all remained silent, then the silence was broken when they heard Shuhan shout and scream for joy. The door slammed open with Shuhan telling all of them, "It's a girl! Come in and see her!" and he immediately disappeared back into the room. Bankotsu took his father's hand and followed him and Inuyasha into the room. The room was fairly bright and Hana walked up to Inuyasha to take little Sango from him and he handed her over.

Takeshi joined his wife who was standing next to the bed bringing his son along. Inuyasha remained by the door watching as the family gathered around Nodoka who had many pillows propped up behind her to keep her sitting up and he could see her holding a pink blanket that had the baby wrapped up in it. Shuhan was sitting on the bed looking at the baby. Inuyasha looked to his left and saw Kaede washing her hands of the blood caused from child birth and how she joined him standing by the door watching as the family looked at the newborn baby girl.

Inuyasha told Kaede, "I remember when you were that small." Kaede elbowed him in the side lightly, "Making fun of me are ye?"

"Not at all Kaede, just reminiscing." said Inuyasha. The two watched on as the Higurashi family welcomed the newest addition to their family. Shuhan looked up and saw Inuyasha standing at the door, "Inuyasha come over here and meet my daughter Kagome!" Inuyasha hesitantly walked over to the happy family. Hana moved a little to let him be close enough to the king to see the baby. Nodoka held the baby up saying, "Inuyasha this is Kagome." Nodoka moved a portion of the blanket out of the way showing a very tiny baby with visible ebony colored hair. She was awake though her eyes were closed, but he guess that she had her mother's eyes. Kagome squirmed around for a moment and Shuhan added, "Inuyasha this is what I wanted you to help me protect. Not only her, but I do hope you'll keep Bankotsu and Sango safe as well."

Inuyasha nodded, "I promise to help you protect your precious people and I'll give up my life to do so sir." Shuhan stood up and held out his hand for Inuyasha to shake it. Inuyasha did so and he heard the king say, "Thank you… really Inuyasha I'm glad that you are here."

Kaede cut in saying, "Okay everyone except for the king, queen and the little princess must leave. Give the queen sometime to regain her strength, you'll have your chance to see them again tomorrow." Everyone agreed and walked out the door. Takeshi told his sister and his wife to return to their rooms since it was late and they both agreed and headed off to get some sleep.

Inuyasha was about to leave saying, "Well I should go and patrol the wall just in case." Takeshi placed his hand on Inuyasha's shoulder stopping him. Inuyasha turned to look at the man with a questioning gaze. Takeshi smiled and told him, "Really Inuyasha your a good man- um I mean demon." Inuyasha rubbed the back of his head and said, "Thank you sir and I'm thankful to have accepted the king's request to stay."

Takeshi took a step back and said, "Don't let me stop you from your duties. I'll see you another time I'm afraid I'll be out at sea for the next few weeks." Inuyasha saluted him, "Have a safe trip sir." Takeshi returned the salute then retreated to his room. Inuyasha then left to go about his duties.

Back inside the room with the new parents Shuhan was laying down on the bed watching his wife breastfeed their baby girl. Nodoka asked her husband, "So this little one is what Inuyasha was originally suppose to protect. I'm glad that Kagome will be safe though along with Sango and Bankotsu."

Shuhan rubbed the top of his daughter's head with a carefree smile, "Well as long as Inuyasha is here then I'm sure they'll be safe. Now you have to rest, Kaede's orders." Nodoka watched as Shuhan took the little newborn from her and placed the baby inside a crib that was right next to their kingsized bed. Kagome didn't fuss and was still well asleep when she was placed in her crib since the she was full from eating.

Nodoka cuddled next to her husband and fell asleep just as quickly, but Shuhan stayed awake a bit longer to bask in this joyous occasion. "I couldn't ask for a better life." said Shuhan.

* Midnight *

A mysterious figure was jumping rooftop to rooftop staring at the Higurashi castle as he did so. Another figure jumped next to the first both wearing ninja clothing with a distinct purple spider marking covering their backs. The two were scouting out the castle running around looking for vulnerable spots to attack from. After finishing their scouting job one made a bird call making a black raven fly to them.

The raven landed on the forearm of one of the ninjas and the other attached a note to the bird's leg and let it fly away. The bird started flapping it's wings, but was then shot down by a arrow while it was in the sky making the bird fall to the ground.

Both of the ninjas turned to face whoever it was and one was suddenly hit by a flying spear that was traveling to fast to avoid. The ninja was hit square in the chest with enough force to knock him off of his feet and off the building's rooftop.

The second ninja was taken by surprise when he saw the attacker, but he didn't have time only being able to see golden eyes pierce through the darkness of night.

Inuyasha grabbed the ninja by the throat making his claws dig into the man's throat and crushing it in the process, lifting him up with one hand Inuyasha slammed him into the ground hard making the ninja choke out. Inuyasha heard heavy footsteps coming behind him and he turned around to see the Nesoi soldiers that followed him and one had a bow and arrow in hand.

One of the men asked, "Is he dead?" Inuyasha shook his head, "No, this demon will live."

"Demon!" shouted one. Inuyasha nodded, "Yeah." He looked down at the demon saying, "By smell these two are spider demons and it looks like they've invaded human bodies to avoid suspicion."

Inuyasha looked back at the soldiers commanding, "Find where that bird fell and make sure the other ninja is dead for sure!" The seven soldiers nodded and all but two ran off. Since Inuyasha came he's gained some respect from a few of the soldiers and has even helped battle the ocean demons that cause trouble in the ports. One of the soldiers said out loud, "it's a good thing you found their scent otherwise whatever info they had would've gone to the enemy."

The ninja twitched some and rolled onto this stomach crawling away very slowly. One of the soldiers laughed saying, "Look the coward thinks he can flee!" Inuyasha watched the man's desperate attempt to get away were. Sighing Inuyasha went over to the man to fetch him, the ninja stopped crawling and hunched his back. The dog demon heard a scrapping noise and the sudden smell of ammonia and other scents. he grabbed the man by his shoulder turning him around and he saw in the ninja's hand was two sticks of dynamite and the fuses lit.

Inuyasha shouted, "Get dow-" He was cut off when the dynamite went off engulfing both him and the ninja and in the process destroying the roof they were standing on. The two Nesoi soldiers weren't caught in the blast, but when the roof collapsed they fell inside the building.

The five soldiers that went to find the bird and the ninja had done their jobs. The ninja died from when the spear hit him and the fall only made it worse so the ninja was overkilled and the bird was dead and the note they found was encrypted. They began to carry the ninja and take the body to Inuyasha, but the sound of and explosion above them caught their attention. Dropping the ninja they ran back to the rooftop of the building to see what happened.

Getting to the rooftop they saw that more than half of the roof was gone and all the rubble was on the top floor of the rooms beneath them.

The leading soldier pointed to a few other soldiers shouting, "You go get a doctor now! You go get some more men and have them come here! The rest of us will dig them out! Now go!"

Two of the soldiers saluted him shouting, "Yes sir!" and quickly left. The remaining three soldiers jumped into the massive hole and began looking around.

"I found a survivor! He's unconscious!" shouted one of the Nesoi soldiers. He had pulled his comrade from the rubble and laid him down properly. The other two found another of their comrade and pulled him out of the rubble as well and from what they could see the man's leg was broken as it was twisted in mangled way.

The leading soldier shouted, "Inuyasha! Are you here! If you can hear me give me a sign!"

A giant piece of the roof was lifted up and tossed aside revealing Inuyasha wearing tattered and burned clothing and blood was leaking from his head. The soldier ran over to Inuyasha asking, "Sir you okay?" Inuyasha nodded, "I'm fine… I wasn't expecting that though. How are the others?"

"They're both fine. Unconscious, maybe some fractured ribs maybe broken, bruised, and bloody, but alive. What happened?"

"That ninja had two sticks of dynamite on him and he blew himself up. What about the other?" asked Inuyasha. The soldier responded, "Dead. We came to the conclusion that your spear killed him. Enough about that though sir we need to get you to a doctor." He then picked up Inuyasha under his arm and helped in and the other two soldiers carried their comrades out of the building.

* An Hour Later *

Inuyasha was getting looked at by a doctor named Suikotsu. Many soldiers were now there policing off the building involved in the explosion and keeping the large crowd away. Many of the civilians heard the explosion and came to see what it was.

General Hakan was there congratulating Inuyasha, "You did good boy. No pun intended, but this was definitely a stake out for a future assassination attempt." Inuyasha was patched up and said, "Thank you general. I'm just glad no one on our side died today. What will you tell the king?"

"Nothing. It was something we can handle, he shouldn't have to worry about this yet and should focus on his newborn. No need to alert him." explained Hakan. Inuyasha agreed and said, "The second demon got away."

Hakan looked at Inuyasha telling him, "No we have the dead ninja now we just need to find any info on him." Inuyasha shook his head, "The demon didn't have a human appearance. It's a spider demon." He held out his hand continuing, "The spiders are as big as my hand and they are parasite type demons that control the human body. I don't smell the spider near us, so it got away. Most likely through the sewers and I can't track such a small scent down there."

Hakan brought his hand to rub the bridge of his nose, "So we don't know who might of sent them?" Inuyasha shook his head, "No, I do recognize demons like these. They were of the same ninjas that attacked the caravan when you were all on your way back from Mnemosyne those three months ago. I think those ones got away as well. "

"So spider demons. I'll have to have a word with the ferry men and have them check the passengers coming to the island for any spider like demons." said Hakan, "It's all we got and all we can do." Inuyasha agreed since that's all they could do at the moment. After awhile the situation was handled and everyone returned home and all the soldiers doubled their guard around the castle's permitter that night."

* Nesoi Port *

A large spider crawled out of the sewers and crawled up the building side to the roof next to another ninja that was hiding in the shadows. The ninja picked up the spider and a few squeaks could be heard from the spider and the ninja slammed his fist on the chimney that stuck out of the roof cursing, "Dammit, so the family has a dog demon. Naraku won't like this. We failed two assassination attempts and we lost one of our vessels in the process." he set the spider down then stepped on it quickly making green ooze come from under his foot, "Naraku doesn't like failure. Now we must find out a new way to go unnoticed, dog demons are amongst the more powerful demons along with the dragon types. I must report to Naraku." The ninja leapt off to one of the boats to return back home.

* Morning *

Inuyasha was in his bathroom taking a hot bath, his head leaning against the wall and a wet wash cloth covered his face. His head wound healed and he was feeling his muscles relax. His bathroom door was opened revealing Myoga asking, "How do you feel sir?"

"Better. The headache is gone and the wound along with it." said Inuyasha. Myoga grabbed a towel and said, "The king wants to speak with you. Possibly about the explosion last night." Inuyasha took the washcloth off of his head and got up saying, "I knew this was coming (Getting out of the tub he grabbed the towel from Myoga) I was wondering if Hakan was gonna tell him."

Myoga followed Inuyasha out of the room and said, "I placed some clothes on your bed." Inuyasha looked on his bed and saw his outfit which was a a red hakama (pants), a white kosode (shirt) and a modified red hitoe (red shirt) to go over the white. He put them on asking Myoga, "Where is he?"

"In the study. I'll take you there now." said Myoga. After Inuyasha got dressed he followed the flea demon out of his room and down the hall toward the king's study. As they walked down the hall Kaede stepped out of the king & queen's room holding the infant Kagome, "Ay were are ye fine gentlemen going?"

Inuyasha and Myoga stopped to chit chat with her for a moment, "Well the king has requested to see Inuyasha in his study." explained Myoga. Kaede looked at Inuyasha, "I assume that it has to do with the explosion last night?"

"Most likely that's the only other reason I can think of why he'd want to see me right now." said Inuyasha. Kaede looked at Kagome then told them, "Well then why don't you take her Inuyasha and take the her to see her father."

Inuyasha started off by saying, "Well okay. Is the queen okay?" asked Inuyasha as he took Kagome. Kaede explained to him, "The queen is fine it's just that she needs some rest and I'm afraid that the baby will wake her up. Kagome was just fed not to long ago so it'll be nice for the king to spend time with her. Now off with ye so your not late to see the king." Kaede began shooing both of the male demons away and they saw Kaede go back into the room to take care of the queen. Myoga and Inuyasha continued their walk to the king's office and Myoga asked the young dog demon, "So Inuyasha your wounds healed up nicely. Much quicker than I expected from someone who was caught in an explosion."

Inuyasha shrugged, "It's a little secret on how I lived. The explosion would've taken off a body part of mine if I didn't act fast." Their short talk came to an end when they stopped at the king's office. Myoga bowed and took his leave after showing Inuyasha the way. Inuyasha knocked on the door before entering hearing the king call out telling him it was okay for him to enter. Inuyasha walked into the office taking a good look around. The king's office was fairly big, four large bookshelves were on two sides of the room, a mahogany desk, a few plants, and a large oil painting of him and his wife were behind his desk.

Shuhan look up from his desk seeing Inuyasha enter with his daughter. He immediately smiled and walked over to Inuyasha asking, "So how is my little one?" Inuyasha handed over the infant telling him, "As far as I was told she's been sleeping for awhile."

The king turned around and ventured back to his desk sitting down, he then held his hand out to an empty chair in front of his desk saying, "You can sit Inuyasha." Inuyasha respectfully bowed and took a seat. Shuhan cradled his daughter in his left arm clearing his throat, "I heard the explosion last night, but I don't know about the explosion in detail. All I do know is that from a few soldiers is that you were involved. Enlighten me please." His words were not demanding nor threatening, it just sounded like a friend asking a long time buddy if he was in trouble.

"Well me and a few soldiers happened upon two ninjas that were being controlled by spider demons. My guess is that they were looking for weaknesses in the castle for a future assassination, Hakan came to the same conclusion as well. As for the explosion, one of the spider demons used two dynamites to kill himself and tried to kill me in the process. I only suffered a minor injury and it didn't really need to be tended to." explained Inuyasha. Shuhan leaned back in his chair after hearing Inuyasha's explanation.

He sighed for a moment then looked at his daughter, "Our enemies want a reaction out of us it seems. They aren't just doing this just for kicks and from what I can deduce is that they want a war, but for what is still unclear. I won't give them that satisfaction and unless they do something to anger me then blood will be spilt. Inuyasha… guard my daughter, niece, and nephew well… I'd hate to hear about anything bad happening to them."

Inuyasha nodded, "I will sir. You've shown me nothing but kindness since I've arrived and just me protecting these three is still not enough to pay my debt to you. I'll make sure that these assassins come anywhere near them. I promise you that."

"Thank you again my friend. You have to be careful as well." said Shuhan as he looked on at his daughter he said to Inuyasha, "You mind holding her for a moment? I still have a few documents to look over and sign." Inuyasha had no objections and he walked around the king's desk and took the infant from the king then he sat back down in his seat. Kagome was still sleeping and he just watched her silently as not to disturb neither her or her father.

Kagome made a little whimper for a moment before it died down and her little head moved into his chest and Inuyasha could slightly hear her little heart beat and the rise and fall of her tiny lungs. He was still amazed that not long ago this little girl was fitting inside her mother's womb. 'Child birth truly is a miracle.' thought Inuyasha still looking at her, 'I wonder what kind of young lady she'll grow up to be?'

The remaining of the time Inuyasha spent just enjoying the silence in the room almost wanting to sleep.

**•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•**

Okay the next chapter is another time skip, but I won't say how many years and any other detail really and if you have any questions feel free to ask in either a review or a **PM **and I will try my best to answer them the best of my abilities without revealing to much. Thank you for reading and I will try and upload soon. See you all next time

-Stay Gold


	4. The Princess & The Bodyguard

Chapter 4: The Princess & The Bodyguard

Okay it's up and I will try and get to work on the next chapter. Thank you all who've reviewed and I'll get the next chapter up ASAP.

•**Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•**

*8 1/2 Years Later *

Inuyasha had spent so far nine wonderful years as the bodyguard to the Higurashi family and was loving it and removed his collar as well to show that he no longer sees himself the slave he used to be. Over the years Hana remarried to a Navy Admiral and had her second child, a boy they named Kohaku. Sadly though Hana died giving birth to Kohaku and the boy's father died when an ocean demon attacked his ship and killed everyone on board.

Sango was only five when it happened, but was still saddened by the events. Shuhan adopted Sango and Kohaku having both take the name Higurashi. Takeshi and Satsuki agreed that one child was enough for them, but eventually the two moved to a separate city from their the main family taking Bankotsu with them. Takeshi felt it was time to leave anyway though he still keeps in touch and they do come by to visit whenever possible.

Shuhan and Nodoka made the best of the home now, but it felt different now that Hana, Takeshi, Satsuki, and Bankotsu were now gone.

Inuyasha was still the bodyguard protecting the family from danger. There were very few assassination attempts, but most were handled by the soldiers since the assassins were humans and rarely any demons came close to the castle boundaries. He was asked by Shuhan to teach the children to defend themselves when they turned eight years old, both girls were doing fine for children, but Sango was getting the hang of the training more. Inuyasha felt that this was more natural for her. Kagome still couldn't beat Sango yet, but he felt that she was getting closer to her older cousin she just needed more time.

* Castle Grounds *

Inuyasha was outside in the courtyard in a meditating position looking out at the blue ocean from the high elevation caused by the castle. He liked being outside since the ocean breeze was soothing and the scenery only added to the relaxing feeling that was coming over him. His ears twitched when he heard a familiar sound, smiling and then sighing to himself he thought, 'Does she ever stop to rest?'

Suddenly bursting out of the bushes was a eight 1/2 year old girl with long black hair, honey brown eyes, and lightly tanned skin. She was wearing green hakama pants, and a short sleeved white kosode shirt. The little girl was swinging a small wooden sword wildly running at Inuyasha from behind.

Inuyasha lightly laughed to himself and he only turned around slowly grabbing the sword mid swing telling the girl, "Kagome it works better when you swing gracefully and not like your trying to swat a fly."

Kagome puffed her cheeks out in a pout then stuck her tongue out at him, "I'll get you next time!" Inuyasha lightly tugged the sword out of her hand gently turning to her still in his meditating position, "I'm betting you will. Why aren't you resting?" Kagome still had her pouty face on and she sat in Inuyasha's lap saying, "I don't wanna rest! I wanna keep getting stronger like Sango!"

Inuyasha scratched the back of his head sighing, Sango had a few more months of training than Kagome and was really good as far as a nine year old goes. Kagome however was jealous that her cousin was getting so much better in such a time. He placed his hand atop her head and told her, "Don't worry Princess you'll get stronger, but that won't happen if you push your body to it's limits."

Kagome kept pouting and remained seated. Inuyasha sighed and knew she was being difficult again, "Well Princess have you any idea what your going to wear for the ball tonight?" Kagome spun around in his lap happily saying, "Mommy got me a brand new kimono and I can't wait to wear it! Hey Inuyasha are you going to the ball?"

"I can't Princess. Dogs aren't allowed at such an occasion." said Inuyasha. Kagome had a sad face saying, "I'm sure daddy will want you to go. We just have to ask him."

Inuyasha brought his hand up extending his index finger and waving it back and forth, "Now, now Princess this is for royalty and high ranking military men. After all the King of Aether, Saiseki Shikigami is coming to the island."

Kagome got up from his lap and put both her hands on her hips saying in a matter-of-fact tone, "That won't do." She grabbed Inuyasha's hand and continued by saying, "You have to go. Come on we'll ask daddy if you can go." She tried to pull Inuyasha's hand, but the dog demon wasn't even budging despite the little girl using all of her strength to do so.

He couldn't help but smile at the little girl's determination to get him to go to this event. She let go of his hand and ran behind him and tried to push him into the direction of the door leading into the castle.

"Kagome what are you doing?"

Inuyasha and Kagome looked up and saw Shuhan walking over to them with his ever bright smile. Inuyasha stood up and bowed to the king, "Good afternoon my king." Kagome ran over to her father and jumped at him. Shuhan caught his daughter asking, "How was training today?"

Kagome giggled and told her father, "Inuyasha taught Sango and I how to use bows, but it was with kid's toys."

Shuhan smiled a bit more saying, "You still are a kid. We can't have the two princesses using real weapons just yet." Kagome again pouted and was put back down on the ground. Kagome grabbed her father's hand and asked, "Daddy can Inuyasha come to the ball tonight?"

Inuyasha immediately interrupted, "Princess it's alright the ball won't be any different if I was there."

"Now Inuyasha I don't think that's right. If Kagome wants you to go that badly then won't you go if I invite you?" said Shuhan.

Kagome left her father's side and ran to Inuyasha intertwining her fingers together, putting on her puppy dog eyes, sticking out her lip as if she was about to cry, and saying in her baby voice, "Pwetty pwease will you go?"

Inuyasha was to late to look away and was trapped in the little girl's stare. 'Dammit I hate when she does that.' thought Inuyasha. He looked away for a moment, but his eyes drifted back to her to see that her face hadn't changed. He tried to fight it but eventually caved, "Okay I get it Princess, I'll go." Kagome's face turned to a wide smile and she shouted, "Yeah!"

She looked at her dad and said, "I'm going to find mommy and get ready for the ball okay?" Shuhan nodded and watched his daughter run off. Inuyasha looked at the king and asked, "How does she do that?"

Shuhan shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know. I know that daughters have this unstoppable power over their father's that make it very difficult to say 'no' to them. The day you find out how to counter that look Inuyasha you'll need to train me." The two men started walking to the castle and Inuyasha said, "We should ask the Queen. After all it doesn't affect her." Both of them began to laugh at that.

* A Few Hours Later *

Inuyasha was in his room getting dressed after taking a bath. Since his stay the King and Queen bought him many clothes to wear and a few formal wear for special occasions, this was something he was grateful for. For this occasion he put on a red kimono, but it had a white honeycomb and flower crest design at the collar and sleeves. Tied around his waist was a yellow sash with a blue tidal wave design at the ends and for footwear he had black pointed shoes. He tied his hair into a low pony tail and was now finished getting ready.

His door opened up and he saw Myoga walk in. Inuyasha and Myoga were the only two demons working in the castle and had a kind of father son bond since the flea has centuries more years than the young dog demon and he never minded him coming into his room unannounced. Myoga said, "You look dashing Inuyasha, so you decided to attend the ball anyway despite your earlier protests."

"I wouldn't have gone if Kagome hadn't insisted. She beat me again with that puppy dog look she does when she really wants something." Inuyasha said with a smile. Myoga knew what he was talking about and has known about it for a long time, "Yes Inuyasha, you have told me numerous times about how she defeats you with that look."

After Inuyasha made sure he had everything he grabbed a decorative sword that was given to him and strapped it to his waist, "I have to go to the castle's main doors and greet the guests. See ya around Myoga."

Myoga told Inuyasha, "Not tonight. I'm working the kitchen and will be there the whole night, so I'll see you tomorrow."

Inuyasha nodded and said before leaving, "Don't work to hard." After Inuyasha left Myoga left the room as well to the kitchen to help out.

* Front Doors *

Shuhan and his wife Nodoka were at the base of the stairs greeting their guests, many of the butlers and maids were leading the guests to the ballroom. Inuyasha stood off to the side along with Generals Choe and Hakan, despite the three being in the ballroom their whole basic purpose were to stop any trouble that might occur. The generals were wearing formal red kimonos with some chest armors.

Hakan whispered to Inuyasha, "Anything out of the ordinary?" Inuyasha took a few good whiffs in the air and told the two generals, "I don't smell anything out of the ordinary, but the wind is carrying the scent of the demons attending tonight. I'm guessing they just came into port."

Choe told the two, "I'll go greet them halfway. Take care of things here." Inuyasha and Hakan nodded and watched the general leave. Hakan told Inuyasha that he was going to go tell the king about the arrival of the Aether king and his entourage.

Inuyasha stood by himself and was still keeping vigilant, but the smell of lavenders caught his nose and he turned around and saw Kagome wearing a pink kimono with white sakura petal designs going down the left sleeve, she had some sandals on, and her hair was tied in a bun and two chopstick decorations in her hair. She ran up next to him saying politely, "Hello Inuyasha."

Inuyasha grinned and said, "Well hello Princess. You look beautiful today." Kagome blushed a bit and asked, "Really?"

He nodded and asked, "Where's Sango and Kohaku?"

Kagome told him, "Sango is with Lady Kaede inside getting the rest of the decorations put up and Kohaku just went to mom and dad to greet the visitors." Inuyasha understood and told Kagome to join her parents to so he could keep a close eye out for the bad guys. He watched the little girl skip off to where her parents and Kohaku were standing at. Sometime went by and eventually the king of Aether appeared in a large carriage.

The driver got out of his seat and opened the door to let the king out. Saiseki Shikigami was a lion demon. He was old though, he had a fairly large nose, a few liver spots on his forehead, his light brown hair was slicked back but had a puff to it (has a few gray strands), a few noticeable wrinkles, his eyes were auburn brown with black slits, and only one fang was visible since the other was broken. The king was wearing a gold and brown coat and breeches, with a large cloak draping down from his shoulders with a gold lion's design in it. He wore dark grey trousers beneath the breeches, tucked neatly into his curled shoes.

Shuhan walked up to the old demon shaking his hand, "It's been a long time Saiseki."

Saiseki nodded and replied in a gruff voice, "Yes to long my friend. I'm sorry to hear about your sister and her husband a very unfortunate incident."

Shuhan accepted his words of kindness, he looked to Nodoka and took her hand kissing the back of it, "And you my queen get younger and younger as the years pass."

Nodoka lightly giggled joking back, "Surely my king your sight has degraded with age."

Saiseki responded, "My queen my words are all true I assure you." He looked down at Kagome asking, "Might this be the little Princess named Kagome?"

Nodoka nodded and brought Kagome to stand in front of her, "Yes this is our daughter Kagome. Kagome say hello to the king."

Kagome folded her hands in front of her and bowed, "Hello King Shikigami." Saiseki smiled and said, "Such a polite and formal little one you have my queen and her beauty matches your own."

The demon's eyes drifted to the little boy before him. Kohaku was a small four year old boy wearing a green kimono with a single black stripe going across the arms of his sleeves. He had long brown hair tied in a high ponytail and freckles over his nose, the little boy hid behind his uncle's leg. Saiseki said, "Oh I'm sorry for scaring you my boy."

Shuhan explained, "He's still young and is afraid of people he doesn't know. I assure you my king it isn't your appearance that has my nephew frightened."

After a small talk the group started walking up the few steps to the front door. Saiseki stopped however when he saw Inuyasha and asked Shuhan, "That man there smells like a dog."

"Well Inuyasha is a dog demon and he's been in our service for nine years." explained Shuhan.

Saiseki complemented, "Good taste. Dog demons are the more loyal of the demons, they are very good protectors as well, but they are a rare sight now... especially human ones."

Inuyasha was called over by his king to meet Saiseki. The two demons met face to face and Inuyasha respectfully bowed to the Aether king.

Saiseki asked, "Tell me boy how old you are?"

Inuyasha responded, "I'm eighty-one my king."

"Eighty-one. Your still very young for a demon." said Saiseki. Inuyasha didn't respond back to the king and watched as Shuhan and Nodoka walked inside with the king.

Inuyasha felt someone tug on his sleeve and he looked down seeing Kagome was the one pulling on his sleeve so he knelt down to hear what she had to say. Kagome asked him, "Your older than daddy?"

Inuyasha smiled and told her, "Yes Princess I am. Here is something funny, in dog years I'm actually five hundred and sixty-seven years old." Kagome showed a shocked expression that Inuyasha could only laugh at. Kohaku walked next to Inuyasha and held his arms up signifying that he wanted to be on Inuyasha's shoulders. He did so by standing up and picking up Kohaku and placing him on his shoulders. Inuyasha told the two, "Well let's go inside now it's going to get cold out here."

Kagome nodded and grabbed ahold of Inuyasha's hakama pant leg and followed him inside.

All the guests arrived and went into the ballroom to mingle amongst each other. The two kings were in a warned off area for only those of political power or royalty while the rest of the room mingled family members that came, the few demons that arrived with the king and the soldiers who were invited.

Inuyasha stayed in the more crowded end with the families and other such demons and was joined by Kagome and Sango. Sango was an inch taller than Kagome, she had long brown hair tied in a bun with chopstick decorations in them, a pink and green kimono with flower designs on the collar, and some sandals. Kohaku went with his aunt and uncle to see if he could talk them into letting him stay up later than he normally would.

He was seated at a table and watched as a few of the guests talked to Kagome and Sango about how pretty their kimonos were and other such things. He was a bit bored and didn't really like to come to such events, he's gone to a few when the king insisted that he attend and when he did he never really talked to anyone and instead would sneak out to patrol the outside of the building.

Sango ran up to Inuyasha and asked, "Inuyasha is it okay if I have some cake before dinner?" Inuyasha looked over at the table that had elegant food laid out for the guests, but he knew Sango had a sweet tooth and liked to have something sweet before dinner. He scratched his head and told her, "You might wanna ask your auntie if it's okay." Sango nodded and ran off to go find her aunt to ask her and Kagome left with her older cousin to ask if she could have some too.

Inuyasha watched to make sure she made it to her aunt and she did. Inuyasha then just sat and waited and a woman approached him saying, "Hello sir." He looked up and greeted the woman back.

She sat down at Inuyasha's table and said to him, "You don't have a date to this occasion?" Inuyasha shook his head telling her, "No I'm working right now."

"Oh what do you do?" she asked. Inuyasha responded, "I'm King Shuhan's bodyguard and I'm just looking out for any trouble that God forbid should occur."

She was quite beautiful and seemed she could get any man she wanted and he noted on her left ring finger that she was married. Inuyasha thought, 'Is she that kind of woman?' The two continued to talk for awhile and the musicians that were hired by Nodoka began playing a different tune.

Inuyasha noticed it and he looked over and saw Kagome had just returned and was glaring at the woman sitting at the table with him, but the woman was oblivious to it. Kagome walked over to Inuyasha taking his sleeve asking, "Inuyasha come on let's dance!" Before he could say anything she already had her puppy dog eyes out and was insistent that he dance, but he knew that it was to get him away from the woman sitting next to him. He gave in and stood up and said his goodbye to the woman following Kagome to the dance floor.

When they got there Inuyasha was much more taller than her, but they still tried anyway. Her small hands were in his bigger hands and he was a bit hunched as well. He could see that Kagome had a sad look on her face and kept looking to her left and right as if making sure everything was safe. This wasn't the first time that he's seen her like this when he goes with either the queen or king into town and he's escorting him and the kids Kagome is always either standing right beside him or holding his hand and keeps looking around. He figured out that she's making sure no other woman approaches him and he found it to be very flattering. After awhile the song ended and so did their dance, Inuyasha bowed to the little princess saying, "Thank you for the dance Princess."

Kagome grabbed his hand saying, "I'm hungry, but I can't see all the food on the table since it's too high up. Can you help me?" Inuyasha sighed thinking, 'She's gonna make sure no woman talks to me tonight.' He agreed and let her lead him to the dinner table. Once they got there he helped her get all of her food and he saw Nodoka and Sango at the table getting some food. Kagome let go of his hand to go up to Sango to get some food.

Nodoka walked over to Inuyasha asking, "I saw what transpired just now. She's marking you as territory I see." Nodoka couldn't help but giggle. Inuyasha smiled and told the queen, "Yeah she's being very vigilant today. I was talking to a woman earlier and Kagome cut in and asked me to dance."

The queen looked at her daughter and said, "Kagome has taken a great liking to you Inuyasha, so it's only natural that any woman that tries to converse with you Kagome will be there to do something to break it up." Kagome and Sango returned and both asked Inuyasha, "Hey can we go out on the balcony and eat?"

Inuyasha looked at Nodoka and saw her give her approval on it. Inuyasha told the girls, "Okay let's go." Both the girls jumped up happily and followed Inuyasha out to the balcony so they could eat while look out at the stars.

* 10:00 p.m. *

Inuyasha was carrying a sleeping Kohaku in one arm and a sleeping Kagome in the other and Sango was walking next to him rubbing the sleepiness out of her eyes. The three shared a room and were to share one until they got older so it was easier for Inuyasha to watch over the three children and their room was a few doors down from his own. Sango opened the door for him and they walked inside. Their room was the same size as his except that their beds were twin sized and there were three of them leaned up against three of the walls. Inuyasha first placed Kagome and Kohaku into their beds first and he went over to Sango and helped her out of her kimono and untangled her hair getting her into her pajamas. After dressing Sango he watched her crawl into bed and drift off to sleep.

Inuyasha walked over to Kohaku's bed, then Kagome's bed putting both of the kids into their pajamas. After making sure that they were all sleeping he sat down on the floor leaning his back against Kagome's bed making sure nothing would come into their room like a loyal guard dog would.

Whenever they had events like this he usually needed to stay up well into the morning never getting any sleep until the following night, but it never bothered him even if he did nap he'd wake up easily thanks to his hearing. Relaxing listening as the wind blew past the house it was relaxing to hear a soothing sound like that, then he picked up the sound of rustling and he looked to one of the beds and saw Kagome up rubbing her eyes trying to wake up.

He got up and told her, "Lay back down Princess it's late and you need your sleep." Kagome shook her head and lazily said, "No… I'm not, I'm (YYYaaawwwnnn) wide awake." Inuyasha sat on her bed and rubbed the top of her head trying to get the girl to relax a little more and go back to sleep. Kagome laid down but wasn't closing her eyes just yet and Inuyasha remained seated on her bed looking out her window at the stars.

Kagome leaned up and asked him, "Inuyasha?"

The dog demon looked at the little girl who just called out his name, "What is it Princess?" Kagome trying to fight off going to sleep by constantly rubbing her eyes was losing the battle. Kagome looked up at Inuyasha asking, "Are you gonna stay with us forever? Your not gonna leave us right?"

Inuyasha tilted his head a little bit, then told her, "I'm not going anywhere Princess." Kagome smiled and crawled out of her bed and laid her head down on his lap whispering, "Cross your heart?"

He brought his right index finger to make an 'x' mark over where his heart was repeating, "Cross my heart. Now time for you to get some sleep you three have to get up to go to Kaede's class tomorrow and you'll need to get smarter if your gonna be the queen someday."

Kagome closed her eyes and told him slowly falling asleep, "I... don't... wanna... be..." not being able to finish since she now fell asleep. Inuyasha lightly picked her up and laid her back under her covers makng sure she was asleep he returned to sitting next to her bed standing guard. This family gave him everything he could need and he would kill anyone who tried to harm his family. He looked over at Kagome one last time and said to himself, "Don't wanna be queen huh?"

He closed his eyes and took himself a nap in his seated position still aware of his surroundings.

•**Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•**

(A/N)

How was this chapter? Good? Well I hope you'll let me know how I'm doing and if you like the direction I'm taking for this story. I'll get another chapter up ASAP and hopefully that will be real soon.

-Stay Gold!


	5. Bodyguard's Job

Chapter 5: Bodyguard's Job

Oh-my-God, I'm sorry that I haven't updated in awhile. I had finished my first and longest story a few weeks ago and just felt like being lazy, but that's out of my system now and I will update as quickly as I can. Thank you for waiting.

**•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•**

* Another 8 1/2 years Later *

Inuyasha walked through the castle after another all nighter, but now the sun was out and many of the inhabitants of the castle were awake and already on the move. Inuyasha was wearing red trouser pants tucked into his black boots, a red zip up coat and a black and yellow sash around his waist.

walked down the hallway toward one of the rooms and promptly pushed the doors wide open and walked inside noting how dark the room was. Thanks to his eyes he was able to see at night as if it was day, he looked around the room to the queen sized bed seeing a lump under the covers shift to the sound of him barging into the room. He smiled and walked to the curtains and letting the light pour into the dark room illuminating the whole room. He unlatched the window locks and pushed the windows open letting the cool sea breeze come into the room. He turned to the bed and called out, "Princess it's time to get up now."

The lump under the bed shifted and he could hear muffled out words thanks to the thick blankets, however thanks to Inuyasha's heightened senses he could clearly hear what she said. Inuyasha strolled over to the side of the bed and sat down on it saying, "Well you know Sango asked me to take her into town so she could look for a weapon to practice with so-"

He was cut off when the blanket was tossed into the air and landed on him, he sighed and lifted up the edge of the blanket peeking out seeing Kagome now shuffling through her walk in closet looking for an outfit to wear. Inuyasha pushed the blanket off of him looking at the seventeen year old.

Kagome's skin color was a healthy light tan color, her hair was as dark as night, brown chocolate colored eyes, her body filled out nicely and was the envy of many women. He got up from the bed and said, "I'll wait outside your door, then we'll go meet Sango together."

"No, no, just close the door and I'll just get ready in the bathroom. I enjoy your company the most Inuyasha." Kagome called from the closet.

Inuyasha closed the door and walked to open window glancing over at the closet seeing Kagome gather some clothes and run to the bathroom. He could hear the bath water running and did as she asked to just wait, he also noticed that Kagome left the bathroom door cracked watching as the steam caused by the hot water seeping out from the crack. After a moment the running water stopped and he could only assume that she was now in the bath.

"Inuyasha where exactly are we going?" called Kagome from the bathroom.

He looked at the door and responded, "Sango saw a weapon shop that just opened up and apparently they sell weapons to be used by humans and demons alike. I've seen it in passing, but I've never been inside myself. Is there anyplace you wish to go while we are in town Princess?"

Kagome sat in her giant bathtub, tied her hair into a bun. As she bathed she normally liked to talk to her bodyguard and liked to give him a hard time by flirting with him on occasions and that usually tosses him out of his element. She sighed as well since the past six years she has been asking Inuyasha to call her by her name and not 'Princess' all the time. "Inuyasha, you do remember that I gave you permission to call me by my name for the past six years right?"

The dog demon merely smiled remembering how she would constantly remind him about that, "Yes Princess I'm well aware of that, but you didn't answer my question."

"Well I'd like to check out that same weapon shop too, maybe I can find a good bow to practice with." Kagome finished with her bath and drained the water in the tub, she reached over and grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her body. Venturing to the sink where her make-up was she began applying everything she needed.

Inuyasha remained silent and glanced to the bathroom again, but what he saw was Kagome from the door being cracked open slightly. He saw that the towel that was wrapped around her stopped a little below her ass and he could see her legs clearly. He quickly looked away hiding the blush that formed on his face. Since she really began to blossom into a woman it became difficult for him to sometimes look at her without having images of him and her in his head.

Kagome finished putting on her makeup and started to get dressed, first by putting on her underwear and bra, then next the dress she picked out. It was a knee high green dress with a fake red rose on the right strap. She stepped out of the bathroom and grabbed a brush and walked over to her bodyguard seeing hiss back, "Inuyasha?"

He turned and looked at Kagome and she noted the small pink blush on his cheeks, "Yes Princess?"

Kagome held out the brush and asked, "Do you mind helping me comb my hair?" Inuyasha nodded and took the brush from her. Kagome walked over one of her mirrors and sat down in the chair that was in front of it, Inuyasha walked up behind her and started to brush her hair. He could feel how soft her hair was and there were no knots in her hair. He continued to comb her hair for awhile and occasionally run his fingers through her black locks just to be sure there were no knots. After he was done he placed the comb on her nightstand next to her bed, "Okay Princess your done."

She looked in the mirror turning her head side to side to see how her hair looked, liking it she stood up and faced Inuyasha saying, "Thank you Inuyasha, your always there helping me." Inuyasha looked away and said, "That's why I'm here Princess…. We should go now."

Kagome agreed and walked up to him taking his right arm in her smaller ones smiling, "Well then let's go." She started pulling him out of her room and down the hallway to Sango's room.

* Nesoi: Downtown *

Sango and Kagome walked down the streets and greeted a lot of people. Sango was a few inches taller than her cousin, her hair was long brown and tied in ponytail close to the bottom. She was wearing a kimono with two shades of pink (lighter shade & reddish pink).

The two were talking to each other and would occasionally see kids run up to them so they could greet the two princesses. Inuyasha walked a few feet behind them with his spear strapped to his back, so far whenever he escorts the princess's, the king, queen, or anyone else really he's never dealt with a situation where someone attempted to assassinate them. It's usually tried when the family least expects it and Inuyasha is always more vigilant when they go into town.

Sango pointed into a direction telling Kagome, "The shop I want to go to is over there." Kagome saw a fairly large weapons shop that had a sign posted that read, 'Warrior Shop'. Kagome, Sango, and Inuyasha stood in front of the shop examining it. Kagome said happily, "Well then let's go!" and quickly ventured inside, Sango and Inuyasha then followed her inside as well.

Once inside they looked around the room seeing all the weapons that were on the walls. Looking ahead of them they saw weapons of all kinds decorating the walls and even two island stands in the center of the shop. After looking at a few of the weapons Inuyasha could feel some demonic energy radiating off of a few of the weapons, but they weren't to much of threat. From the back of the shop they saw someone push aside the curtains that blocked the doorway, an elderly demon came in.

The old demon had on a loose fit green black stripped kimono that went horizontally. He looked a bit thin, his eyes were bulging out of his head, he was bald atop his head but he had hair around the side of his head and a small ponytail, and a gray mustache and beard. The old demon was carrying a hammer with himself. Inuyasha could smell that the old demon had the scent of ash, soot, steel, and sweat about him most likely he was the blacksmith.

The old demon sat down at the counter setting his hammer to lean against the wall addressing his customers, "Hello, my name is Totosai and I am the blacksmith that makes these weapons."

Sango and Kagome bowed respectively saying their greetings. Sango asked the old man, "Umm I was wondering if you have any heavy weapons?"

Totosai scratched the top of his head and pointed to a section of shop, "Yes we do, many of our heavy weapons are over there so feel free to pick from what I have over there." Sango walked over to the large weapons seeing giant swords, halberds, javelins, and many other weapons. While she looked around Kagome asked Totosai, "Do you have any bow and arrows?"

Totosai turned around and grabbed a certain bow and handed it to her, "This one is possibly the best I've made, I just replaced the string using the thick hair of a horse demon and the bow itself is made from a very tough wood. Very reliable bow." Kagome took the bow and held it like she was to fire it and to get a good feel for it. Kagome smiled and looked at Totosai saying, "I like it. How much is it?"

Totosai took the bow and said, "It's pretty expensive. That'll be 25,000.00 yen." Kagome looked at Inuyasha who was already handing her a pouch that had some coins in it. Kagome took out what was needed and slid the money to Totosai, "That should be enough right?"

The elderly demon counted the money and nodded, "Yes, this is enough. I'll be happy to throw in some specially made arrows, I'll give you twenty for free." Kagome thanked him and watched him grabbed twenty arrows that were tied together, "There you go. Pleasure doing business with you." Kagome took the arrows and her bow and thanked him for giving her the weapons.

Suddenly Sango moved in front of Kagome laying on the counter the weapon she wanted, "I'll take this one!" Kagome and Inuyasha looked at it, it was a giant boomerang that was taller than Sango.

"Oh so you want Hiraikotsu then?"

Inuyasha, Kagome, and Sango rose their eyebrows all saying, "Hiraikotsu?"

Totosai nods explaining, "Yes, many demon bones were used to make this weapon. It's very sharp and very heavy as well and if you are not trained properly to use it then you'll surely do more harm to yourself than your enemy."

Sango proudly pointed to Inuyasha saying, "Don't worry Totosai. Our bodyguard Inuyasha here is skilled in combat so he'll show me the proper way to use Hiraikotsu."

Totosai and Inuyasha locked gazes and remained silent, but before long Totosai merely said, "Well it's of no concern to me wether or not you can use it. My job is to merely make these weapons and sell them, what the owners do with them afterward is up to them. So then the total for Hiraikotsu will be 50, 000.00 yen."

Sango reached into the pocket of her Kimono and pulled out a pouch full of money. Counting it she handed the money over and Totosai put the money away and told Sango, "Pleasure doing business with you." Sango lifted up the giant boomerang and could feel that it was heavier than what she was used to, but thanks to her training she could carry it without complaining about the weight.

Kagome and Sango bowed to the shop keeper, "Thank you so much!" and then turned to leave. Inuyasha held the door open for the two, but Totosai called out, "Inuyasha was it?"

Inuyasha stopped in his tracks to look at the elderly demon.

"Mind if I take a look at your spear you have there?"

Inuyasha took his spear off of his strap and walked over to Totosai handing over his memento. Totosai examined every inch of the spear, "Marvelous craftsmanship, the spear tip is sharp although not very sharp, and the attention to detail is impressive too. However this is still a human's weapon and I'm surprised that a demon like yourself would be using one. Most demons would have demonic weapons made for them." He then lightly tossed the weapon back to Inuyasha.

Kagome snapped her finger saying, "I got it, Inuyasha why don't you have a demon weapon made?"

Inuyasha said, "Well, I'm not so sure. I like using the spear and-"

Sango butt in saying, "Who said that you can't use both? Come on Inuyasha I'm sure he can make you an awesome weapon."

Totosai explained to him, "All I'll need is your canine fang to start and the rest I can handle myself." Inuyasha thought about it and wasn't so sure, but Kagome placed both of her hands on his shoulders saying, "Go on you deserve it."

He simply made a sigh and said, "Fine I'll do it. How long will it take to make?"

"Three days." Totosai said while holding up three fingers, he then reached over and grabbed a pincer device and said, "Now open wide."

Inuyasha walked forward and opened his mouth wide, this caused Totosai to grab his top canine fang and he then ripped the fang right out of his mouth making Inuyasha stumble back holding his mouth feeling slight trickle of blood come out from where his fang was just ripped out from. Kagome walked over to him and started to rub his back asking him if he was okay.

Totosai examined the fang and said, "This is a very nice fang right here. It'll make a fine blade indeed, now all you need to do is come back in three days and I will have your sword finished by then."

Since Inuyasha wasn't listening trying to get over the sharp pain in his mouth, Totosai explained this to Sango. She asked him, "Okay how much will this cost then?"

"Nothing. After looking at this fang and the power radiating off of it I'll do it for free. My goal in life is to make the most perfect demonic weapons and this one just might be the one I need."

"Thank you for all your help. We'll be sure to come here more often if we need some more weapons." said Sango. Totosai thanked them and watched as the three left, he looked at the fang in his hand and thought, 'I'd better get to work then.'

Inuyasha was now walking up right, but he brought his right hand up to rub his upper lip where his missing fang was, "It'll take three days until a new fang grows, so I'll look funny for three days." Sango and Kagome were walking on either side of him. Inuyasha looked around the town and saw a familiar shop asking the two princesses, "Can we stop here. They might have a remedy for the pain in my mouth."

Kagome and Sango looked at the sign on the big building reading it at the same time, "Jinenji Medicine Hut." Kagome and Sango looked at each other and both saying that it was okay.

When they walked inside the different aromas of many kinds of herbs assaulted their noses. However what caught their attention was a very large man that was at least taller than your average tree and they were awe struck.

Inuyasha asked, "Hey Jinenji. Got anything for a tooth getting ripped out of your mouth?"

When the massive man turned around they saw him wearing a kimono that was old and tattered, his arms were long and muscular, his shoulders were broad, his lower body was a bit small, his head was in the shape of a horse, and his eyes were big and were a deep blue color. He reached over and started going through a few drawers that had different medicines in them looking for the one Inuyasha wanted. Meanwhile Kagome and Sango looked around.

Kagome saw a jar labeled as 'Keep Closed'. She picked it up and examined it and a pair of wrinkled hands came up to take the jar from her. She looked and saw and elderly woman grab the jar and say, "Be careful with this one child. If you open this then it'll spell trouble for me and my son here."

"What is it?"

The old lady put it back explaining, "It's an aphrodisiac for demons, it drives them crazy and lustful. We sell it to hunters to lure demons into being captured or killed, but since there aren't many hunters in these parts we just hold onto it just in case. We can't really dispose of it without risking other demons smelling it."

Kagome made an 'oh' expression, then something hit her, "Wait your son?" and she looked over at the giant named jinenji. The old woman explained, "Yes this is my son Jinenji."

Jinenji found what he was looking for and grabbed some her medicine that was ground up into a paste, "Apply this and the pain will go away Inuyasha."

The dog demon used his index finger to get a good amount of the paste and rubbed it where his missing fang was and immediately felt the affects working and the pain subsided. Inuyasha pulled from his own pocket a few coins and walked over to the elderly woman, "Here you go."

She took the coins and said, "Thank you Inuyasha. Please come by anytime you need."

He bowed to the old lady saying his goodbye to the giant as well. He, Kagome, and Sango then left walking down the street. Kagome asked him, "Inuyasha, that old lady said that Jinenji was her son."

"He is. Not by adoption, but by birth. Jinenji is a half-breed demon and he's been kind enough to make me a lot of different medicines that I give to Kaede whenever you guys are sick." explained Inuyasha.

Sango added, "So he's the one who's been practically curing us when we get sick?"

"Yup."

Sango and Kagome were amazed, since when Kaede would bring in some nasty tasting tea they would always feel so much better an hour later. Now they had Jinenji to thank for their good health. Kagome linked her arm into Inuyasha's saying, "Okay then lets go home!"

Sango and Inuyasha liked that idea and headed back to the castle. When they turned the corner a man ran into Sango knocking her over.

Inuyasha helped Sango up and saw her explode, "Hey watch were your going ass-" she was cut off when the man in front of her was already up and saying, "I'm so sorry for running in to you. I was being chased by this- well it doesn't matter so are you okay?"

The man was at least the same height as Inuyasha, his black hair was tied in a small ponytail, black pants, sandals, and two colored kimono top one half being black and the other purple. Sango dusted herself off and said, "It's alright, but try and be careful and more considerate of the people around you when your running away like that."

The man apologized and said, "I'm very sorry milady. I'll be sure to do that. I'll take my leave now." and there he was running off again.

The three continued their journey back to their castle.

The black haired man ran to an apartment and pulled out a pouch full of money and said, "Shippo I have our meal for the next few weeks. The girl I ran into was loaded."

A little boy with a fox tail, auburn red hair, tied into ponytail with by a bow, turquoise eyes, and a small fang coming out of his mouth appeared shouting, "Alright Miroku! We finally get to eat nice for once, then we can help pay for the orphanage!"

Miroku sat down at the table saying in sad tone, "I do feel bad about stealing from such a beauty, but if we need to keep the orphanage running then it's necessary to become thieves. I only hope Buddha and that lovely lady can forgive me someday."

* Castle: A Few Hours Later *

"I'M GONNA KILL HIM!"

Sango was pissed and was about to leave the castle grounds, but Inuyasha stopped her pushing her back, "Princess please calm down."

She shouted, "He stole my money that I've been saving up the past two months! I should've known that he was pickpocket!"

Kagome ran over to her cousin to try and calm her down, "Don't worry Sango, Inuyasha will find him." She turned to look at Inuyasha saying, "You can find him right?"

He nodded, "Yeah, I can recognize his scent from the first encounter. I'll find him Princess don't worry about it."

Sango told him, "I want you to bring him back here so I can handle it."

Again he nodded and ran off to find the pickpocket. Kagome told her, "Okay Sango let's go inside and he'll be back before you know it."

* Nesoi: Downtown *

Inuyasha walked to the area where they ran into the pick pocket and dropped on all fours sniffing the ground for the scent of the man. After a few good whiffs he found the scent, "Got you." He stood up and dashed off into the direction of the scent. Running down a few roads he came to some apartments, the scent lingered there although he didn't head up the flight of stairs since the smell of the pick pocket was stronger away from the apartments and he could smell a fox demon's odor was mixed in with the man.

Calmly walking down the street Inuyasha followed the scent and noticed that the area they were going led to lower districts of the kingdom. People watched him walk down the crowded streets of traveling merchants and fish stalls and even cleared the way for him since many knew who he was. Inuyasha feared he wouldn't find them since the smell of many foods, spices, and other aromas filled the air, but he pushed on making sure his nose was trained to follow that scent.

The scent led him down an alleyway and to a fairly large building that looked like it would come down in a moment's notice, he followed the trail up the steps to the building and saw a sign that hung that read 'St. Michael's Orphanage'. Pushing the doors open he walked through the foyer of the building he assumed used to be nice and used for parities. He was brought out of his thoughts when a woman came into view.

She was wearing a nun's outfit and a white crucifix was around her neck, her face was a fair color, her eyes were a teal blue color and a small mole at the bottom corner of her right eye. Her smile was radiatingly contagious, she bowed and said, "Welcome sir, my name is sister Tara."

Inuyasha glanced around the room then back to her, "Hello sister, my name is Inuyasha."

"Are you here possibly to adopt?" she asked with hope.

"Afraid not, I'm here on business." he said.

Her smile dwindled, but quickly she perked up, "Oh, forgive me but you don't look like the man who normally comes to collect the months' rent."

He shook his hands frantically, "No, no, no, you have it all wrong sister I'm here looking for someone." Inuyasha gave a detailed description of the man and the accounts of the day. Sister Tara was a bit shocked and said, "Oh dear me. Well-…. Miroku means well, but he seems to walk down a road of thievery. I didn't think he'd steal from the princess though."

He could see the sadness in her eyes and said, "I'm not even sure he's aware of what he's done. May I ask does he steal to help the orphanage?"

She hated to admit it, but Miroku often steals from many people to help make sure the orphanage remains there and the children not be tossed out onto the streets, "I'm afraid so sir. I wish he was able to find another way to help, but it's thanks to him that the orphanage has remained for all these years. Times are tough and there are more and more children that loose their parents."

Inuyasha asked her, "Mind if I see this man?"

"What will you do might I ask?"

He sensed the fear in his voice which he assumed was that she feared for his life. He calmed her, "I just want to meet him for myself, you see my princess is very upset that the money she's saved up was stolen from her so easily."

"What penalty will become of him?"

He couldn't lie to her, "Well my princess is understanding and he might get away with a slap on the wrist or even a fine, but I'd like to talk to him myself though."

Sister Tara nodded and led Inuyasha down the hall passing a few rooms. The dog demon saw many pictures made by the children and they were very colorful and he felt his heart ache knowing the pain of loosing ones parents. They stopped at two doors that led to the dining room he assumed since he could smell food on the other side. He told her he would wait for her to bring him.

She opened the door and Inuyasha saw the glimpse of the pick pocket named Miroku and saw the kids were happily sitting around him eating, laughing, and talking. Before the doors closed he saw most of the kids ranged in ages, height, genders, and races and despite where they live and how they survive he couldn't help but feel sorry for them.

Tara walked over to Miroku and said, "Miroku there is a man here to see you." Miroku looked at Tara and said, "For me? Okay I'll be there." Miroku stood up and followed Tara, they both opened the doors and they saw no one there.

"I don't understand he was just here?" said Tara.

Miroku asked, "What kind of man was it?"

"He was with the royal family and he told me who you stole from." she told him, Miroku was a little frightened as she told him that he stole from the princess of Nesoi and his heart literally dropped from his chest.

* Castle: An Hour Later *

"And your sure Inuyasha?" said Sango

Inuyasha returned and told her that he couldn't find the pick pocket, "Afraid so, I searched high and low, but I lost his scent amongst the crowd in the lower district. I'm sorry for my inability to find the man."

Sango lightly punched his arm, "It's alright Yash. Well I'll just have to start over on saving up my money again." with that said Sango left the training ground to her room to get ready to train with Inuyasha and Kagome later.

Kagome stood next to Inuyasha and looked at him with an all knowing grin on her face, "Tell the truth Inuyasha. You did find him didn't you?"

She always knew when he was lying and he'd ask how she would know, but she wouldn't tell since she said and he quotes 'then you won't give yourself away when you lie. I want to be sure that only I can tell when your lying.' He responded to Kagome saying, "Sorry princess, but I just couldn't turn him in after what I saw. He stole that money for a good cause, but I do intend to make contact with him just not yet."

Kagome reached up and brought her hand to cup his cheek, "Your so sweet, that's what I like about you." Inuyasha blushed at the contact of her skin to his and couldn't help but feel weak at the knees from a simple contact. Kagome took her hand away and said, "Well I'll go get dressed for training, so I'll see you again in a moment Inuyasha." Kagome left swaying her hips for him to see.

Inuyasha watched her walk away and thought, 'Princess you don't know what your doing to me.' All he could do was hold in these feelings he had for her.

**•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•**

Thanks for waiting and I'll get to work on the next chapter ASAP!


	6. Bodyguard Meets the Monk

Chapter 6: Bodyguard Meets the Monk

OMG! I am so sorry for that long wait it's just that I've been caught up in my other story and before I knew it I had taken to long in updating this story and again I am very sorry! Sad news is that my other story is picking up quite well so this one will be getting very slow updates, but I will do my best to upload quickly. Thank you for your patience and I hope to try and upload again real soon!

•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•

* Next Day *

Inuyasha was sitting off to the side watching Sango swing her massive boomerang around into the air and watching it come back to her. He had to stress that upon the boomerang's return it has enough force to dislocate her entire shoulder if handled incorrectly. Sango caught the boomerang, but was knocked off her feet when the weight of it didn't stop. He walked calmly over to her and helped her up. Sango asked, "What am I doing wrong?"

He quietly took the boomerang and gave her instructions, "When swinging this weapon you need to keep your feet firmly planted into the ground and then swing." Inuyasha tossed the boomerang with such force that wind picked up in the process. Sango watched in awe as the boomerang came back around and how calmly he looked. Inuyasha continued, "Now upon it's return continue keeping your feet planted and… " Inuyasha caught the boomerang and did a kind of 180˚ keeping a fluid motion of bringing the boomerang to a stop, "There you have it. Don't go against it's flow otherwise you'll hurt yourself, keep the motion going and soon enough your muscles will get used to the weapon and you won't need to do this method."

Sango walked up to Inuyasha and took the boomerang and did as instructed. She took a good breath and planted her feet just like Inuyasha and tossed it as hard as she could, the boomerang spun in the air and started making a return trip. Timing it just right she caught the massive boomerang in the air and did as Inuyasha instructed and was able to go with the flow and this time she didn't fall. Looking shocked she shouted happily, "I did it!" Then the happy tone came to a stop when she fell on one knee holding her shoulder.

Inuyasha sighed and said, "Muscles sore?" Sango nodded and he pulled out some cream handed it to her, "Rub this where it's sore and it'll heal up quickly."

She took the medicine cream and moved the right side of her kimono down just enough to let her apply the cream. After putting it on she stood up and said, "I'm going to try it again."

The inu demon could only encourage her, "Well keep it up. I'm gonna go check on the Princess Kagome to see how her archery is coming along." He saw that Sango was already running off to keep up her training. He calmly walked to the archery range where a lot of the soldiers go to better their archery skills.

Upon his approach he saw many of the soldiers and servants crowded around Kagome watching as she hit the bull's-eye with every arrow. Not wanting to interrupt her, he instead sat down by one of the trees close by and watch from a distance. He took her all in watching each movement she did upon firing an arrow and he was proud that she got this far without his help. She had everything every woman would envy, youth, beauty, an amazing body, charisma, smarts, and much more. Many men wanted her and yet none could, which included himself. He'll always be seen as a kind of older brother in his opinion if anything. He was so taken with her that he missed the fact that someone taken a seat next to him.

"Beautiful isn't she?"

Without thinking he responded, "Yes she is." Then it hit him, looking to his right he saw the King sitting beside him smiling brightly, "My King! What a surprise to see you here." Inuyasha said almost nervously.

"I can tell you are surprised, so how's the training?" asked the king. Inuyasha looked at the king and saw that age was getting to him, his hair was becoming a grayer color and a few wrinkles started to form, but the king was still in the prime of his life.

Inuyasha reported, "Sango's getting used to her weapon slowly and Kagome's archery needs no instruction anymore." Inuyasha looked at King Shuhan and saw that he didn't even looked like he cared.

Shuhan got up and stretched, "Well that's all good news. With your help they got stronger and I can live a tad bit more easier knowing that they'll be safe if something were to happen to me." He looked down at Inuyasha asking, "Tell me Inuyasha are you smitten with my daughter?"

The inu demon didn't have a response for that exactly since no one used a word like that anymore. He nervously answered, "Well Princess Kagome is-"

"I see."

Inuyasha looked up to see the king smiling still, "I see that when in regular conversation you can call her Kagome, but it seems when we really talk about her you address her with her title. You really respect her don't you?"

He could only chuckle, "Please my King one question at a time." said Inuyasha.

The two stood in silence before Shuhan told Inuyasha, "I just got word from the Empress that our 'friend' Naraku and apparently new King of Artemis is going to war with her again." Inuyasha gripped his fist at the sound of that man's name to the point where his sharp nails pierced his skin making blood trickle from his fist.

Kagome continued hitting each mark dead on and wasn't missing, that is until she felt a familiar aura being tainted with hatred 'Inuyasha?' she thought as she fired that arrow it veered off and hit the ring around the bull's-eye.

One of the soldiers said, "Awwww she missed." Even though the soldiers and everyone else complimented her on her aim. Kagome smiled and thanked them, looking around she saw Inuyasha and her father at a tree talking to each other. She could still feel the hatred rolling off of Inuyasha and wondered why he was like that. She thanked everyone who watched her practice and ran over to where Inuyasha and her father were.

Inuyasha and Shuhan saw Kagome running over to them. Inuyasha asked the king, "What's going through that man's head?"

"I wish I knew, but it seems like it'll be a matter of time before he comes after us with such force. The Empress wants our support, so we are gonna give it. My brother is using the Naval fleets to stop Naraku's armies from gaining supplies, but our help is limited without us actually getting involved in this war." said Shuhan, seeing his daughter come closer he said, "Let's keep this between us and put on happier faces so my daughter doesn't worry."

Inuyasha bit his bottom lip and calmed himself down, the closer she got the easier it was for him to calm himself. He could feel her warm aura wrap around his keeping him calm.

Kagome stopped in front of the two catching her breath, "Hello Inuyasha, father."

Shuhan pretended to pout, "Awwww I get the second greeting?" Kagome and him giggled and she turned to look at Inuyasha and saw his lip was bleeding. She reached up and said, "Inu your bleeding. Here let me." she reached into her pocket and pulled out a cloth and wiped away the blood on his bleeding lip.

Watching his daughter care for Inuyasha brought a smile to the ever aging king. He stifled a laugh watching Inuyasha blush at the contact.

Inuyasha was speechless as she cared for something like a bleeding lip, so he hid his bleeding hand from her so she doesn't worry about that as well, but she seemed to already know. Kagome finished wiping away the blood on his lip and said, "Now give me your hand Inu." the tone in her voice was demanding and not wanting to anger her he held out his hand slowly.

Her small delicate hands took in his large hands, "Inu you should be more careful with your claws."

Sensing that this was a wrong time to be there Shuhan quietly left the two alone. Kagome ripped a piece of her outfit so that she could wrap Inuyasha's hand up.

"There's no point Princess, I'll just heal too quick."

Kagome tapped his nose and told him, "Still. There that should do it." After tying the makeshift bandage on his hand she scooted so she sat next to him. She looked at the clear blue sky feeling the cool sea breeze pass through, "Inu?"

Inuyasha looked at his princess asking, "Yes? Something wrong?"

"I was going to ask you that. Are you okay?"

"Yes Princess I'm fine." Inuyasha told her, when he looked at her he saw that she was looking back her eyes filled with worry, "I swear Princess it's nothing that you need to worry about. Just demon troubles and it's nothing that I can't handle."

Kagome scooted closer so that her shoulder touched his as her face neared his, "I just worry is all. I know it's silly for a princess to worry about her bodyguard like this, but… in all honesty I don't see you like-" Her words were cut off when Sango's Hiraikotsu slammed into the dirt a few feet in front of them making the two jump in surprise.

Sango ran over to them shouting, "Sorry, sorry, my mistake I released it to early and it went sailing off. I didn't hurt either of you did I?"

Kagome gave her cousin a death glare saying in a low menacing tone, "No Sango you didn't!" Sango sensed her cousin's tone and picked up her weapon and said, "Well then… I guess I'll just… um… well… Okay I'll just leave now." and quickly ran off.

Inuyasha stood up and told Kagome, "Sorry Princess, but I have my rounds I have to do. I'll be back later tonight." Kagome stood up too and said, "Well maybe I could accompany you?"

He immediately shook his head and told her, "No can do Princess. My rounds shouldn't take too long, so you'll see me back soon."

Kagome told him, "You be careful okay."

"I will Princess." He gave her a toothy grin and took his leave jumping high into the air jumping to the nearest wall and over it. Kagome watched him leave and shouted, "Damn you Sango!"

* Downtown *

Miroku walked down the streets of Nesoi checking out who'd be his next target, but so far no upperclass people were nearby for him to pickpocket. He'd only try to pick whoever had more than they deserved or ones who deserved to get picked and right now no one matched those two. Miroku sat down on a bench thinking back to the princess he robbed, at first when he'd seen her he thought that she was very beautiful and that she lived with a silver spoon in her mouth which is why he picked her, but had he known that she was one of the princesses of Nesoi then he wouldn't have done it.

He sighed and ran his hand through his black hair trying to get the image of her out of his mind, but to no avail that is until he saw a man walking by who had his hand over his breast pocket of his coat looking like he was trying to protect something. Miroku instantly thought, 'Bingo.' He got up from his seat and waited for his moment. The man was walking into his direction and Miroku saw a passing group of men that were heading his way to, so Miroku casually tripped one of the men causing him to fall into his intended target.

Miroku put on his best facade and said, "Oh I'm terribly sorry here let me help you up." Miroku helped his target up and then helped the man he tripped, both men were upset, but let it go. Once they left Miroku held out a pouch full of money and said, "Well this will add up to feed the kids." He carelessly started walking down the street and someone bumped into him. Miroku shouted, "Hey watch it!"

Then he saw the man who bumped into him hold up the pouch filled with money and chased down the man Miroku just stole it from. The stranger shouted, "Excuse me sir! I think you dropped this!"

The man Miroku stole from checked his pockets and realized the money was missing and started to thank the stranger. After the man left Miroku walked up to the new stranger and shouted, "Hey what was that about I needed that money!" Before he could grab him, the stranger reached up and grabbed his hand turning to him so Miroku could see his face. It was the man Sister Tara described that came looking for him at the orphanage.

"My name is Inuyasha… I've been looking for you Miroku." said Inuyasha.

Miroku trembled a little and said, "What now? You gonna turn me in?"

Inuyasha let go of his wrist and said, "Why?" Miroku looked abashed as Inuyasha said that and responded, "What do you mean why?"

"I honestly have no idea what your talking about."

Miroku glared at him and said, "I don't like to be toyed with."

Inuyasha walked over to a bench seat and sat down patting the spot next to him for Miroku to do the same and he did so cautiously. Inuyasha explained, "That man you were gonna steal from just got his payment from work today and was gonna use that money to help get his three kids food."

"How do you know?" Miroku asked stunned.

Inuyasha looked at Miroku and said, "I don't, but thats always the case down here in the lower district. One man working double mostly triple shifts so his kids can live to see tomorrow and the last thing these working men need is a pickpocket going around taking what they've earned working sleepless nights."

Miroku shouted, "I'm sorry for some of these people really I am, but I have many more kids to feed and watch out for!"

Inuyasha wasn't fazed by Miroku's sudden outburst and told him, "Sit back down. You look crazy to others randomly jumping up and shouting like that." Miroku did so and Inuyasha continued speaking, "I know about St. Michael's orphanage, but does stealing from a man who already doesn't see his kids enough deserves to come home wanting to feed his kids only to find out that he was robbed?"

Miroku at that point felt lower than trash. Inuyasha saw this in his eyes and said, "I was an orphan as well, so I know the feeling of not having a family, but that can change. Can I ask you something?" Miroku nodded not wanting to look at the demon, "Those kids see you as a hero right? One who can't do any wrong and is the ultimate big brother and can kill a demon barehanded right?"

The black haired man chuckled in amusement and said, "Yes they do."

"How do you think they feel when one day their big brother is either sent to prison or killed for stealing? That'd shatter their whole look of you." Inuyasha said bluntly. Miroku slumped more and he heard Inuyasha stand up and say, "You can change that however."

Miroku mumbled, "How?"

Inuyasha looked at him and said, "Join the Royal Guard. I've done the math and it turns out that you'll make enough money to keep the orphanage running and get enough food for all the kids." Miroku stared in shock and said, "I know about the Royal Guard, but there are two things wrong with that: One is that it'll take three months of training before you can receive payment and two you need to be recommended by someone of high rank."

The dog demon brought his hand up to his chin and said, "That is a problem. Well then I guess that I'll have to pay three months rent and food as well as recommend you to the Royal Guard." Miroku immediately went silent and was flabbergasted by what Inuyasha just said. Inuyasha casually put his hands in his pockets and started to walk off, "I'll give you a week to think it over. Just go to the front gates of the castle and say that you what to meet with Inuyasha and I'll handle it from there! See ya!"

Miroku watched him walk off and looked down at the bench where Inuyasha was just sitting and saw a pouch full of money with a note attached to it that read, 'For the kids'. Miroku grabbed the pouch and ran to the orphanage, it was time he got his shit together.

* Port *

Inuyasha walked to the port where many ships were coming in and would watch as a guard. Sometimes ships would come into Nesoi Port and would often be attacked by demons that live in the ocean, so it was his job to intervene. Mostly since there was so much presence in the port most demons didn't attack, but if they were desperate enough to attack the fishing ships for an easy meal than they wouldn't hesitate.

The one smell he could do without is the smell of fish guts and the many aromas of what's pulled from the watery deep. Inuyasha leapt up to one of the buildings and sat in waiting for maybe five hours at the most. The first few hours was highly uneventful that was until a giant demon risen from the ocean.

Inuyasha grabbed hold of his spear and stood up. People began to panic and run as the demon was twice the size of the fishing ships, the demon had a human form, a bald head, and it's body was completely black and it had huge glowing eyes. It's arms were long and it raised it out of the water to one of the ships to devour the fish that was about to be loaded off the boat. As it reached over it's arm was hit with by an iron beam knocking it's arm back. The giant demon looked over and saw Inuyasha standing there next to a pile of iron beams ready to throw.

The dog demon shouted, "Your an Umibozu aren't you?" The demon spoke out to Inuyasha obviously angered, "Bring me a barrel demon so I can drown you in it."

Inuyasha twirled his spear around in the air shouting, "You won't get me to do something like that! Now just return to the ocean where you belong!"

Umibozu tried to punch out at Inuyasha, but because of it's size it's movements were easy to read plus it was slow moving. Once he avoided it Inuyasha stabbed his spear into the demon's hand, the giant demon pulled it's hand back and looked at it.

'Because of it's size he doesn't feel the pain of being stabbed, but as long as I can hold it off until the cannons are ready.'

The giant black demon looked at Inuyasha and a mouth started to form. The bottom half of the jaw hung loose as it roared in anger, it punched out at Inuyasha again, but like before Inuyasha dodged it, but this time picked up another iron beam and threw it at the demon's shoulder making it grunt in annoyance. Inuyasha looked and saw General Hakan and his soldiers had readied the cannons on a naval warship off the coast along with two other naval ships.

Umibozu roared at Inuyasha and did a horizontal swing so that it'd hit just above the port ground to knock Inuyasha off. Inuyasha attempted to dodge again, but the sound of crying caught his attention and he looked to his left and saw a little kitsune demon was crying and was trapped under some lumber that some of the workers probably dropped on him in a hurry to get away. Inuyasha ran over to the kitsune and grabbed him, "Hey kid you okay!"

The kitsune whipped his eyes and said, "My leg hurts and- Look out!"

Inuyasha turned his head around and saw the Umibozu's and was too late to dodge it and was hit. At the last minute Inuyasha grabbed the kitsune and held him close and took the full force of the hit sending him flying into a building. Before flying into the building and blacking out Inuyasha saw his spear fly into the air and fell into the ocean, the Umibozu roared in triumph, but was suddenly bombarded by cannon fire making it scream in pain.

The Umibozu turned it's head and saw that three ships were firing at it, not wanting to fight the demon receded back into the ocean running away. General Hakan saw the demon escape and shouted, "Inuyasha has been hit hurry to his position!" The soldiers were already in the process to dock the ship to go see if Inuyasha was okay.

Meanwhile inside the building Inuyasha was knocked into laid motionless on the ground. The small kitsune moved out of Inuyasha's arms and looked at him and began to cry a little, "Hey mister are you okay!" he started to shake him, but Inuyasha laid motionless. The little demon started to panic and remembered that you should check if the person is breathing. He pushed Inuyasha onto his back and held his ear to his chest and let out a sigh of relief when he could hear him breathing.

The little kitsune heard many footsteps coming into the building they were in and panicked again and despite that his leg hurt he ran on all fours out of the building. He took one more look at the demon that saved him and heard the soldiers shout, "Inuyasha must be over here!"

"Inuyasha? Thanks for saving me." and ran off again.

* Next Day: The Higurashi Castle *

Inuyasha awoke slowly and he looked around and saw that he was in his room. He tried to sit up, but felt a twinge of pain in his body that made him stop moving. His door opened up and in walked Kagome carrying some fresh bandages and some ointment. She calmly walked over and set the medical supplies off to the side. She sat down on a chair next to his bed saying, "You had us worried you know."

"Sorry Princess…" Inuyasha said sadly.

Kagome grabbed some of the bandages and said, "Well let's change your bandages on your body." Inuyasha tried to lean up, and felt Kagome help him up and he looked at his chest and saw that he was all bandaged up. He asked Kagome, "Did Kaede fix me up?"

This made the young princess blush as she said, "No… I did." Inuyasha was shocked and he said to her, "You didn't have to do that Prin-"

She immediately cut him off, "I didn't have to, but I wanted too!" She calmed down after raising her voice and instructed him, "Raise your arms, I know that it'll hurt but just bare with the pain and I'll do my best to treat your wound."

Inuyasha lifted his arms above his head as instructed and the movement made him wince in pain, the Umibozu must have broken his ribs when he got hit and on top of the fact that the Umibozu's skin is very poisonous even when you have clothes on. Kagome unraveled his old bandages and tossed them in the trash next to her. She inspected his wound and saw that it was looking better, "The antidote that Jinenji made is working. The poison seems to have disappeared, but your ribs must still be broken." as she wrapped some fresh bandages around his body he felt her hands glide across his skin making him tremble. Kagome did her best and told him trying not to sound to sad, "Inuyasha you said that you'd be careful."

Remembering that he did tell her that he felt a little more saddened, "Sorry Princess I just got careless and this happened. I didn't mean to worry anyone."

She heard the sadness in his voice and said, "Inu your too important to me to be getting hurt like this."

He looked liked someone just slapped him in the face at this point hearing her say something like that caught him completely off guard. He lifted his arms again as she started to wrap up his upper body again, "You shouldn't worry to much though Princess, I'm just a bodyguard after all. If I die there will be someone to take my place and-"

"That's not what I meant at all Inu…" she said sadly, she stopped wrapping his bandages to look at him in the eyes, "You've been there for all of us since before I was born. It wouldn't be the same if something happened to you." Tears were welling up in her eyes as she tried to hold them back, Inuyasha used his left hand to reach up to touch her cheek and wipe away the tears in her eyes before they could fall. Kagome grabbed his hand in hers and so to keep his hand on her cheek, gathering up as much courage as she could she moved her face closer to his inch by inch… until…

The doors opened up revealing a soldier. Kagome stood up startled by the sudden intrusion they both looked at the soldier who said, "P-Princess? Um excuse me for my rude interruption, but I came to tell Inuyasha that there is a man outside of the castle demanding to see him. We tried sending him away, but when he said that you told him to come here well we just-"

Inuyasha moved his body so he could get out of bed, but Kagome tried to stop him, "Inu your not well enough to get up yet." The soldier also ran over to try and stop him from getting up, but Inuyasha insisted, "I asked him to come here, so I should go see him."

Kagome used all her strength and pushed him into the bed scolding him, "I said your not well enough you could hurt yourself more." She sighed and said, "If it's that important then, soldier bring the man inside the castle so that Inuyasha could speak with him." Following the princess's orders the soldier ran to the front gates to get the man.

She grabbed Inuyasha's hands and pulled him up so he was at least seated on the bed to continue wrapping his bandages. He should've known better to try and oppose her, she was the one to keep him from further injuring himself and this moment shouldn't have been any different. Once she finished wrapping his bandages she said, "There your all wrapped up, but you are not to leave this bed for the rest of the day."

He gave her smile back and could feel the medicine she applied earlier taking affect. Kagome pulled out a book she put in his nightstand from the night before to sit and wait with him to meet this man that Inuyasha asked to come meet him. Inuyasha just laid patiently waiting for who he knew was Miroku thinking, 'He made up his mind rather quickly.'

Both of them heard a knock at his door, Kagome helped Inuyasha sit up and she walked over to the door to open it revealing Miroku. When Kagome saw him she immediately recognized him as the pickpocket that stole from Sango, oh this wasn't going to turn out well if Sango found out that the guy was here. When Miroku saw Kagome he froze and instantly bowed to her saying, "Princess Kagome! I-I was looking for Inuyasha's room I must've heard wrong-"

Kagome told him, "Calm down this is Inuyasha's room I'm just taking care of his wounds. Please come in." Miroku walked inside Inuyasha's room and saw the dog demon in bed looking at him. Miroku walked over to the bed and said, "I heard about what happened at the port yesterday from one of the orphans you saved."

Inuyasha looked confused and said, "Orphan? You mean the kitsune?" Miroku nodded, "Yes he's one of the youngest at the orphanage his name is Shippo. He was at the port looking for some food when that demon attacked and he told me that some dog demon named Inuyasha saved him-"

Kagome walked to the other side of the bed looking at Inuyasha, "That's what happened? You got injured saving a kitsune demon?" Inuyasha nodded and Kagome asked Miroku, "Is he okay?"

"Yes, his leg had a small cut on it, but he recovered surely thank you for asking Princess."

Kagome smiled, "That's good news."

Miroku bowed to Inuyasha saying, "Let me please become one of the Royal Guard Inuyasha! I'm indebted to you for what you've done for Shippo and I intend to make sure that no orphans walk the path I have been walking!" Inuyasha didn't like it when people threw their pride away and are reduced to begging, but always respected them for it that they are willing to go that far.

"Miroku please stand up." Inuyasha said to him. Miroku didn't stand and was on his knees looking up at Inuyasha, the dog demon pointed to his ribs saying, "Can't do much right now, but when I'm entirely healed I can overlook your training as a royal guard. Hopefully my body will be completely healed by tomorrow, so I'll come find you and introduce you to our general so you could start."

Kagome looked at Inuyasha and saw that even though he wasn't showing it, it was smiling on the inside. Something about this man made Inuyasha want to help him maybe she'll see what makes this guy special soon. Miroku had no choice but to agree, "Thank you Inuyasha! I'll never forget this!"

Before anything else could be said further Inuyasha's door opened revealing the last person they wanted to see at the moment. Sango walked in carrying some flowers to place in Inuyasha's room as a get well soon gift, "Sorry Kagome for barging in, but I-" She stopped mid-sentence when she saw Kagome standing next to Inuyasha's bed, she saw that he was awake and looking better, and the pickpocket… 'THE PICKPOCKET!" Sango thought furiously.

Dropping the flowers she ran forward shouting, "You won't get away this time bastard!" Miroku fell back scared out of his mind. Sango swung her fist at Miroku's face, but a hand came up grabbing and stopping her attack. Sango and Miroku looked in shock seeing Inuyasha standing in between the two holding Sango's fist in his stopping her from harming the man. Sango could see the pained look in his face knowing that his sudden movement probably did some damage to his ribs, evident to it more when he let go of her fist and fell to one knee holding his sides.

Kagome shouted at him, "Inuyasha you idiot you could hurt yourself more!" She and Sango put his arms around their shoulders and helped him back into bed. Miroku was stunned at the moment and froze seeing that after she helped Inuyasha back into bed, Sango gave him a death glare asking in a menacing tone, "What are you doing here!"

Miroku stumbled with his words, "W-W-Well y-you s-s-see…" Inuyasha took some good breaths and said, "Princess let me explain the whole situation."

It took some time, but Inuyasha was finally able to explain the whole situation to both Kagome and Sango about Miroku and why he never turned him in. Needless to say that both women were surprised to here about the man's 'good' deeds, but they frowned that he couldn't find a better way from the get go. Sango paced for a moment saying, "Okay Inuyasha you want him to join the royal guard instead of going through normal training?"

Kagome sat on Inuyasha's bed to make sure that this time he definitely didn't move again, so Inuyasha was this forced to lay down as he spoke, "I think he can handle it."

"You think?" asked both Sango and Kagome simultaneously. Inuyasha said, "He can do it… He's the kind of guy that has the drive to do anything once he focuses his mind to something."

Miroku sat off to the side shrinking every time Sango looked his way. Sango walked to stand in front of him crossing her arms, "Inuyasha seems to trust you, but that doesn't mean I do. I just trust Inuyasha's judgement and until you prove yourself you'll never earn mine. He's putting a lot of faith in you so don't let him down." with that she stormed off still irritated.

Kagome whispered, "That went better than I initially expected." She got up from her seat saying to Inuyasha, "Now stay put or else Inuyasha." The dog demon nodded and stayed laying down, Kagome was going to show Miroku the way out of the castle. The two walked quietly through the castle, but a lingering question was in Miroku's mind and he hoped that the princess could answer.

"Princess I was wondering something about Inuyasha."

"What is it?" she asked.

Miroku looked at her back as they walked, "Well I noticed that he doesn't wear a collar like slave demons should wear. Even here in this kingdom though slavery is a rarity demons still wear their collars to seal away their powers, so why doesn't he wear one."

Kagome stopped walking and which made Miroku stop as well wondering if this was a topic that he shouldn't have brought up. Kagome looked at him with a smile saying, "He's not a slave… He's family, he's been there since before I was born and when Sango was a baby. Father trusts him with his and our lives to protect us and he's been doing so for close to eighteen years. He doesn't wear once because we refuse to make him wear one."

Miroku was surprised by her answer, but then the expression on Kagome's face changed making him scared for a split second, "What Sango said is right. Inuyasha seems to trust you and from what he's said I can see why and I also trust Inuyasha's judgment fully. However if you betray his trust, then I will make you pay. He is someone very important to me and I will not have anyone trample on him."

"I won't Princess. He's put more trust in me than anyone ever has and I'll do what it takes to show everyone that I can be more than just a street rat." said Miroku. Kagome smiled and said, "That's good because I'd hate for those kids to find out that the kingdom killed their older brother. He'll take care of them like he said he would until you make the royal guard."

Kagome continued showing Miroku to the entrance of the castle and watched as he was escorted off the castle grounds and back to the town. Kagome walked back to Inuyasha's room to make sure that he didn't exert himself, this was the first time in a long time that Inuyasha had that look in his eyes. The last time she seen his eyes like that was when her cousin Bankotsu became a captain of his own ship in the Navy. She was seeing it slightly when Kohaku began training, but when her little cousin went to visit Bankotsu for a month Inuyasha didn't really have that drive. She was happy though that he was wiling to do so much for others in need.

"He's always been mister softy." Kagome mused to herself.

•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•

A/N

Umibozu- A spirit in Japanese folklore. The Umibozu is said to live in the ocean and capsize the ship of anyone who dares speak to it. This spirit's name, which combines the character for "sea" with the character of "Buddhist monk," is possibly related to the fact that the Umibōzu is said to have a large, round head, resembling the shaven heads of Buddhist monks. Alternatively they are enormous demons that appear to shipwreck victims and fishermen. They are believed to be drowned priests, and exhibit the shaven head and typically appears to be praying. According to one story, if angered, they ask that the crews provide a barrel that it proceeds to fill with sea water to drown them. To avoid this disastrous fate, it is necessary to give him a bottomless barrel.

I added my own twist to the Umibozu making it that it's skin is poisionous on contact.


	7. Bodyguard Slays a Demon

Chapter 7: Bodyguard Slays a Demon

If you please can you read the A/N at the bottom of this chapter. Thank you

**•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•**

* Next Day *

Inuyasha walked down the hall of the castle trying his best to avoid Kagome at all cost. He knows just how overprotective she could be when it came to him being even slightly injured, he hated doing this, but if he needed to move about freely than he needed to sneak past her without being driven back into bed. His body was getting better there was just the issue of his ribs being the slightest bit of an annoyance. As he walked down the halls he made it to the lounge room to relax.

Being confined into a room was not his idea of comfort. He slid open the door leading into the lounge room and saw the queen sitting a couch reading a book. Nodoka looked over to Inuyasha and smiled, "Good morning Inuyasha. How are you feeling?"

Inuyasha looked at the queen and remembered something about both her and the king... Age. Though he'd never say it to either of the two he could see age was coming over them, eighteen years seemed to have gone by in a blink. Not extremely noticeable though you could see very faint wrinkles. The king had slightly visible wrinkles around his eyes. Inuyasha didn't fear that he'd age, but for others.

"A lot better my queen. He sat across from her and calmly said, "By the end of the day I should be back to one hundred percent. What are you reading?"

She read a few more pages and then looked up at Inuyasha, "Just an old sailors novel. My father left it to me before he passed."

"I see. I no longer have a memento from my master. His spear is at the bottom of the ocean somewhere in the port." Inuyasha said sadly. Nodoka looked at him and felt sorry for him, the thing he's cherished for years is gone now. Even if someone went in the ocean to try and retrieve it it'd be a death wish. There is almost little to no light at the bottom of the ocean port, it's cold, the danger of being caught and tangled in one of the nets of the ships, and of course demons.

The chances of him seeing his spear again was very low and even lower if it was caught in an ocean current. He now had nothing to keep that was of his previous family. "I've heard from Kagome. I'm terribly sorry Inuyasha."

Inuyasha smiled weakly and said, "As long as I still have a memory of them then everything will be fine." She heard him talk and could still hear the sadness in his voice, it's true that if you have the memories than everything will be fine... usually. Nodoka vaguely remembers what her father looks like, she was so little when she last seen him and that was many years ago.

"Well Inuyasha as long as you have that then everything will work out."

Both shared a slight laugh, but it was short lived when the door opened up and they looked and saw Kagome standing in the doorway and she had a very ominous aura about her. Inuyasha started to slump into his seat trying to make himself as small as possible. Nodoka called out happily, "Why hello Kagome."

Kagome walked over to her mother and hugged her saying, "Good morning mother." After they parted Kagome looked at Inuyasha and the aura seemed to come back, "Inuyasha... I'd like to know why your not in bed resting like I said before you went to sleep."

"Well you see I uh..." Inuyasha didn't know what to tell her. Kagome sighed and said, "Well it can't be helped if you can move about freely without pain." Kagome said calming down some, she went over next to Inuyasha to sit and Nodoka thought it time to tell the two, "Oh by the way. Kohaku will be coming home in a few days."

Kagome was very happy hearing the news, "That's great! Is he coming by ship or is he coming by carriage?"

"I believe that Bankotsu will be bringing him on his ship the 'Band of Seven'. Bankotsu wishes to show Shuhan and Inuyasha his ship."

Kagome remembered the name of those bandits in the fairy tale story, seven fighters who came together and fought a dog demon that held massive power. Inuyasha told them the story when they were kids and Bankotsu liked the name of the story, so it would make sense that he'd name his ship after his favorite fairy tale.

"How many days?" Inuyasha asked.

Nodoka thought about it and said, "I believe my husband said two more days."

Inuyasha sighed saying, "That means I have two days to kill that Umibozu before they get into port." Before either the princess or queen could ask him how he was to accomplish this the doors again opened up and the king walked in. Inuyasha stood up and greeted him, "Good morning sir!"

"Good morning Inuyasha. I see the warden let you out." Shuhan joked referring to his daughter. Kagome stuck her tongue out at her father and got up to give him a hug and after they broke away he walked over to his queen and gave her a hug followed by a passionate kiss. Kagome blushed and glanced her eyes to Inuyasha looking at his lips wondering about the feeling of sharing a passionate kiss with him like her parents are doing.

Once the king and queen broke their kiss they sat down looking at their bodyguard and their daughter. Shuhan said to Inuyasha, "I'm sorry about your spear. We've tried to let nets down into the ocean hoping that it'd hit the bottom and that we'd be able to pull it up… So far we have nothing."

"Thank you for trying anyway my King." Inuyasha said sincerely, "I need to go into town today to pick up my new weapon that a weapon master had made." Inuyasha rubbed his tongue around his newly grown in fang that had been ripped from his mouth three days ago.

Kagome remembered when they did that, but with everything that happened the past few days she easily forgot about what happened, "I remember now, Totosai said that it would be done today. Shall I accompany you to pick it up?"

Inuyasha nodded and Kagome seemed to get happier. Shuhan and Nodoka exchanged glances and smiled at the scene before them, it was no secret about Kagome's affection toward Inuyasha that went from a crush to full bloom love for him. Inuyasha however they think that he loves her in a way a father loves a daughter, but both know that his own assumption is wrong.

"I'd like the company Princess." said Inuyasha standing up. Kagome also got up and straightened out her dress, she slowly took his arm in hers telling him to lead the way. The dog demon turned his head slightly away from Kagome to hide the obvious blush on his face, the two walked out of the room leaving the king and queen alone.

Nodoka tried to hold in a soft giggle, but the king caught the slight sound, "What's funny might I ask?"

"Inuyasha is such a funny demon." she said. Shuhan shook his head saying, "He's a modest one that Inuyasha."

* Downtown *

Inuyasha, Kagome, and a few other soldiers made their way to Totosai's workshop to pick up Inuyasha's weapon that was to be ready today. Inuyasha had on his black military shirt, pants, and boots with a red sash across his waist and Kagome had on a light red shoulder less gi-like shirt with loose arm-warmers reaching her upper arms and deep red spandex shorts. She had her bow on her back and a carrying case holding thirty arrows strapped to her side.

They reached the shop and Kagome said to the soldiers, "Just wait outside while we get the weapon."

"Yes ma'am!" said the soldiers together. Inuyasha opened the door for Kagome to enter first and the moment the door opened a heat wave seemed to pour out of the open door. Kagome started taking heavy breaths, "Why is it so hot in here? It wasn't like that before." Inuyasha took the lead and had to adjust the collar of his shirt since it was so damn hot, "Hey blacksmith you here!" called out Inuyasha.

Kagome also adjusted the top half of her shirt opening it up a bit more so she could breathe, "Man it's hot." she said.

Inuyasha looked at her saying, "Princess just wait-" he stopped in his sentence when he saw Kagome, she hadn't realized that she opened her shirt up enough for him to get a decent look at the top of her cleavage. He blushed a heavy red color and averted his eyes, "M-M-Maybe y-you should w-wait outside." he said shakily.

Kagome tilted her head wondering what was wrong, "Inuyasha you okay?"

He couldn't face her and said quickly, "Yes everything is fine!" Kagome was still a bit confused and said, "I'll just go in with you. Let's go." she started walking ahead of him and a nervous Inuyasha followed behind her. Looking around they didn't see him and so they went to the back of the shop feeling the temperature rise even higher. Kagome kept fanning herself and Inuyasha tried his best to ignore the heat, but they found who they were looking for.

The old demon blacksmith was hammering away at a large axe weapon and finally noticed that he had visitors, "Ah Inuyasha and the Princess. You're here for the sword I'm guessing?"

"Yes we are. Can you please open the door or window it's very very hot." asked Kagome. Totosai held his hand up checking the temperature of the room replying, "It is? Huh, well I have been doing this for a very long time so I never really notice the heat." He got up and walked over to the window and opened it letting the sea breeze wind come into the room cooling the room down a bit.

Inuyasha asked the old demon, "You really only finished it in three days?"

"That I have my boy." said Totosai, the old demon walked over to the corner of his workshop shifting through a barrel of swords examining each one, "Ah here it is." He pulled out a katana, lightly tossing it to Inuyasha who caught it by the handle examining the craftsmanship of the sword. The guard was gold with a ash gray wrapping around the handle.

Totosai explained, "That sword has your demon energy running through it and it's true power will respond only to you and 'you' alone. The sword's name is Tessaiga." Kagome looked at the sword Inuyasha was holding and saw that the blade was rather sharp. Inuyasha could feel a lot of energy flowing through the sword. The three were interrupted when a soldier barged in shouting, "Inuyasha Sir! That demon has a returned to the port and it's attacking a Navy ship this time."

Inuyasha smiled thinking to himself, 'Payback time.' Inuyasha looked at the old man saying, "Thank you Totosai." Inuyasha started walking away and told the soldiers, "Take the Princess back to the castle immediately."

Kagome argued, "No I'm going with you!"

"That's not an option Princess. I can't fight that demon if I'm worried about you, please just go back to the castle where it is safe." Inuyasha pleaded with her. Kagome stared him down and told the soldiers, "We're all going with Inuyasha. That's an order!"

The soldiers were unsure of what to do they just kept looking back and forth between Inuyasha and their Princess. On one hand Inuyasha has saved a lot of them countless times whenever demons attacked and he's highly respected among the two Generals, but on the other is the Princess the daughter of the man who they serve. Inuyasha walked up to her and placed both his hands on her shoulders saying, "Princess please. This is a battle and there is no guarantee that you will come out of this unscathed."

She shook her head saying, "Trust me Inu for once that I'll be able to take care of myself. I won't be in the way I promise." Inuyasha could see that she wasn't going to go back home and if he had the soldiers drag her back to the castle than she'd never forgive him, but if she got hurt not only would the King and Queen not forgive him, he wouldn't either. He gritted his teeth and he heard another voice speak up.

"I'll watch her."

Both Kagome and Inuyasha looked to the source of the voice and they saw Totosai standing close by with a hammer in one hand, "You battle the demon and I'll watch over her. Those arrows I've given her are not for show, the arrow heads are made from a shark demon's teeth. She can fight from a distance and I'll stake my life that she will not be harmed." Kagome smiled and said, "See he'll watch over me Inu."

He was starring at Totosai and eventually caved, "Fine, but I swear that if she-"

Totosai cut him off before he could finish, "I understand, if something happens I'll face any punishment you see fit." Inuyasha could only grunt and told the soldiers, "I'm going ahead first, get the archers in place along the outlining buildings. Call another ship and have it circle around the demon and fire from a safe distance."

One soldier asked, "What about you?"

Inuyasha simply replied, "Try not to hit me." and jumped off. Kagome asked the soldier about what Inuyasha said, "What did he mean?"

The same soldier replied, "We always do this. When ocean demons attack he actually goes out and fights them while we attack from a distance. We try not to hit him, but… sometimes it's inevitable." Kagome was to shocked and ran out with Totosai and the soldiers following close behind.

* Higurashi Castle *

"What!" shouted Sango.

She was training out in the courtyard with other soldiers when she saw one run into the courtyard asking for some reinforcements, Sango asked him why and told her what happened and what Inuyasha had asked for, "Inuyasha should be battling the demon now."

Sango told the soldiers, "We're going! Get your weapons!"

"Princess where are you going?"

She looked back at them with her Hiraikotsu in hand, "To fight!"

* Docks *

General Choe was on the ship fighting the demon. His ship was being outfitted for drills to train new soldiers when the demon attacked, it was the worst time too since new recruits were scatter all over the ship not knowing what to do. His limited amount of trained soldiers could only do so much in this fight, but luckily Inuyasha had shown up and attacked the demon.

Inuyasha sliced the demon's arm making it scream, "Damn Umibozu."

The pitch black demon screamed and tried to punched Inuyasha, but he avoided the attack. He looked at his sword thinking, 'Slices through it's skin like butter.'

General Choe saw that the demon was not interested in his ship anymore and he shouted, "Get the recruits off the ship! Then load up as much gunpowder as you can onto the the ship!" One of his veteran soldiers did as he was told passing along the info to the others and getting the recruits off the ship.

The Umibozu kept trying to hit the evasive Inuyasha, but it was no use. Inuyasha kept slicing at it's hand every time it missed. The Umibozu screamed, "I'll kill you!"

Inuyasha seen the demon climb out of the water and it was standing on the docks now and it was very tall. Much more taller than Inuyasha was, but that didn't deter him one bit. It attacked again stomping it's foot down, but an arrow hit it right in it's eye making it scream in pain and stumble back. Inuyasha looked to where the arrow was fired from and saw Kagome loading another arrow. Totosai was sitting right by her looking at the giant Umibozu. Inuyasha looked away and jumped at the demon's knee and sliced it deep making fall on that knee. Inuyasha didn't stop as he jumped up and sliced the demon across the face hearing it scream again.

Kagome aimed and shot the demon with another arrow hitting the wound in it's knee watching as her arrow tore into it easily. Totosai watched the whole battle saying to himself, "Why doesn't he use it's full power yet?" Kagome heard him and looked to him asking him, "What do you mean?"

Totosai explained, "That sword has a lot of demonic energy built up. I want to see what power that blade truly holds." Kagome asked him, "Well he just got the sword. What if he doesn't know of it's true power?"

"He should, looking at him now and the expression on his face can only mean that he's holding back. I'm guessing that this isn't the first time he's held a demonic weapon before."

Kagome told him, "Well he did teach Sango how to use the Hiraikotsu, that was a demonic weapon that you made."

The elder demon nodded replying, "True, but that boomerang has no hidden power. It's just very sharp and has as much destructive power as a cannon, but it seems to me that he's wielded a demon sword with a demonic aura before much like his own sword there." Totosai scratched the top of his head saying, "I would guess that he knows how, but is afraid of the outcome of that sword."

Kagome looked at Inuyasha worried about him.

General Choe was at the helm of his ship watching as his soldiers placed barrels of gunpowder on the deck of the ship. Seeing a few more barrels he told one soldier, "Tell Inuyasha to knock the demon onto this ship! I just need one more soldier to help me move the ship closer to that demon!"

"I'll do it."

Choe looked over to the mysterious voice and saw a man with black hair tied into a rat tail and street clothes, "Who are you boy?"

"Someone here to help."

Inuyasha avoided the demon's attack and looked at his sword feeling the pulsing from it getting stronger and stronger. So far he was only using the sharpness of the sword and was to afraid to use it's full potential not knowing what could come of it. He turned his attention back to the demon who was starring him down. Inuyasha heard someone approach him and seen a soldier, "Sir, General Choe wants you to get the demon onto his ship."

Kagome shot at the demon again after she saw the soldier head over to Inuyasha catching it's attention. The soldier explained in more detail about the what the general had in mind and Inuyasha agreed and told the soldier to get back or else he'd get killed, he swung his sword again and a golden projectile fired from it hitting the Umibozu in it's chest.

Totosai continued watching disappointed that Inuyasha still wasn't using the sword's real power and only using a faction of it… not even a fraction. The Umibozu in a rage tried to punch Inuyasha, but a flying boomerang hit the demon square in the jaw knocking it into a building. Inuyasha and Kagome saw the boomerang fly through the air and saw Sango standing atop another building catching it. Totosai said, "All my weapons are being used today."

Sango waved to Inuyasha shouting, "I got your back Inuyasha!"

He nodded and looked to the Navy ship and saw Choe's ship was moving toward where he and the demon were. Inuyasha shouted, "Hey demon is that all you got!"

Pulling itself from the rubble it stood up shouting, "I'll drown you all!"

Inuyasha said to Sango, "Hit it in it's inner left knee!" She did as she was told and tossed the Hiraikotsu at the demon's knee. When it hit the demon leaned to it's left loosing it's balance, a building was nearby and he didn't want the demon to catch itself so he told Kagome, "Princess shoot it in the eye again!"

Not wasting time Kagome did as she was told and shot the demon in it's eye making it grab it's face in pain. Inuyasha directed Totosai, "Totosai hit it in the chest with your hammer!"

Totosai jumped from the building thinking, 'I'm to old for this.' and he hit the demon square in the chest while Inuyasha dashed forward and sliced the demon's achilles tendon making the demon fall back onto the Choe's ship.

The general and his 'friend' abandoned ship before it could crush them and jumped into the ocean. Inuyasha held up his hand and the soldiers standing by lit their arrows on fire and shot at the Navy ship igniting the gunpowder watching it blow the demon up. Everyone shielded their eyes and saw the flames die out when it touched the water. Everyone applauded and the citizens who watched from a safe distance cheered as well. Inuyasha told the soldiers, "Get General Choe out of the water now!"

The soldiers nearby did as they were told and most jumped into the ocean to get the older man. Inuyasha stood by and saw them pull him out of the ocean and as well as, "Miroku?" said Inuyasha. The soldiers pulled him out and Inuyasha helped him to his feet, "What are you doing here?"

Miroku said with a smirk, "Paying you back and showing that I have what it takes to do this."

Before anyone could speak the general said in a proud tone, "This young man is definitely idiotic. Could've gotten himself killed, kinda reminds me of me in my youth." Some of the men laughed and they all looked over and saw Kagome and Sango running over to them. Choe's eyes widened in shock saying, "What are the Princesses doing here!"

Inuyasha frowned saying, "They-"

But was cut off when Kagome said, "The two of us came of our own accord. Neither the soldiers nor Inuyasha knew that we were going to be here."

Sango continued after her, "Had we not shown up things possibly wouldn't have gone so smooth." Totosai walked over and sat down watching everyone. He at least got to see the successful use of two of his weapons and a portion of the third one's power. Inuyasha looked at Totosai and walked over to him, Totosai sighed and asked, "Why didn't you use Tessaiga's full power?"

Inuyasha replied, "Didn't need to, but when the time comes and I really need to… Then I will." Totosai agreed with his decision and Inuyasha turned away from him and the sudden shake caught everyone off guard as the Umibozu rose out of the water screaming, half of it's face missing, and chunks of it's body were gone as well, but it's left arm was still intact it saw Kagome, Sango, Choe, Miroku and the other soldiers and was about to slam it's hand down on top of them to crush them.

Acting quickly Inuyasha ran in front of them all and pulled out his sword again and swung out at the demon, but the entire sword was engulfed in a blinding gold light and next thing they saw was a giant wave of energy burst forth in the form of three golden claws that ripped the demon to shreds and parted the water into three claw shaped rips all with a single swing. Totosai smiled from his distance thinking, 'So that's what your power is huh Tessaiga?' The water returned to normal after the effects of Tessaiga's power wore off and the remaining bits of the Umibozu fell into the water.

Inuyasha and the others were shocked as to the power that was unleashed from his sword and they were taken back by the sight of it. Inuyasha looked at his sword now in his hands, instead of a gold guard it had a large patch of fur, and the smaller sword blade became a massive looking fang. Totosai walked over to Inuyasha saying, "It transformed for me when I was making it, but it wouldn't show me it's power. It's like a puppy that knows only the ones it can trust and only shows it's power to the one it is loyal to… and that loyalty it feels from you. I can only speculate that when this sword gains more experience from battles it'll be stronger."

Kagome, Sango, and Miroku stood around Inuyasha looking at his sword amazed by it still. Kagome lightly elbowed Inuyasha in his side saying, "Regret getting it now?" Inuyasha shook his head and the sword returned to it's normal size and he sheathed the sword. General Choe walked up to Inuyasha saying, "Inuyasha you need to tell the king about your sword."

Sango looked to the general asking, "Why?"

"That's a lot of power for one to have. Tell the king about this and see what he thinks of this new power. You were able to blow a full sized demon like that easily with one swing of that sword while earlier though slow it was still able to do some damage. You can understand Inuyasha the fear that this sword could bring to the people of this town." explained the old general. Inuyasha looked around and saw the people who watched the last part of the battle and he could see the discomfort in their eyes, whether it be a human or a demon wielding the sword it left them wondering, but Inuyasha knew that it was because he was a demon which put them even more on edge on where he stood with Humans.

He could hear Kagome and Sango telling the general about how he saved everyone just now and what would've happened if he didn't have this power, but Inuyasha broke in saying, "It's alright. I'll tell the king."

Kagome looked at Inuyasha whispering, "Inu."

"This is something huge and it's something that shouldn't be kept a secret. I'll tell him when we reach the castle." Inuyasha told the blacksmith, "Thanks again for the help."

Totosai nodded saying, "It's no trouble at all. Bring the sword by anytime to be repaired if need be, you know where to find me." Totosai walked off to return to his workshop.

Inuyasha looked at Miroku saying, "What you did today helps you get into the Royal Guard. Not many can impress General Choe that easily." Miroku smiled and scratched the back of his head and watched Inuyasha, Kagome, Choe, and the soldiers head off to the castle. Sango lightly punched him in the arm saying, "You did good today. Looks like I can see what Inuyasha sees in you. Come on my uncle will want to see you as well."

Miroku lightly laughed saying, "Yeah your uncle- Wait you mean the King!" He said the last part a bit shocked and Sango laughed at the shocked expression on his face and motioned for him to follow her. Miroku stood stunned for a moment before he followed after her.

Meanwhile hiding amongst the crowd were two men both standing motionless with a shredded cloaks on and both men's eyes were cold and lifeless. One spoke up saying to the other, "The Umibozu failed to kill the dog."

"Yes, we must report to the King now."

They both turned around and waded through the crowd disappearing.

* Higurashi Castle *

Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, General Choe, Miroku, and the soldiers who participated in the attack were all standing in the throne room in four rows of six looking at the King and Queen who sat looking at everyone. Choe explained what happened at the pier even the princesses appearances, Miroku's help, and Inuyasha's new weapon.

A lot of important people where in the throne room and the gossip began as to what happened. Shuhan and Nodoka were both wearing expensive kimonos decorated to impress and boy did they. The king's eyes were closed as he processed this information.

He stood up and said, "You all realize that I am not happy with my daughter and niece being there during the battle." his tone low and serious.

Inuyasha and the soldiers looked down. Kagome and Sango made an attempt to speak, but he silenced them by raising his hand, "You two don't speak. Inuyasha I'm more disappointed in you of everyone here." Inuyasha lowered his head more not wanting to meet the king's eyes, "You as their bodyguard should've sent them away. The only reason I wanted them trained was to defend themselves should trouble appear, not to go purposely out to look for trouble."

Shuhan walked away from this throne and stood in front of Inuyasha. Kagome said, "But dad you don't-"

"Kagome silence!" he said in a demanding tone. Kagome rarely hears her father raise his voice, she looked to her mother to see if she would say anything, but Nodoka stared at her with sad eyes. Shuhan sighed and said, "However I can't just blame Inuyasha for this." Inuyasha and everyone in the room looked at the king with a confused expression.

He walked over to Kagome and Sango who stood next to each other, "You two went out there to fight and you could've not only been in the way, but could've gotten killed yourself." Both Sango and Kagome were relieved that at least they were taking some of the burden for this as well and not all of it was forced on Inuyasha. Shuhan said, "Because you two left the castle grounds without escorts and fought against a dangerous demon. Both of you will be confined to the castle grounds for an entire month."

Both girls eyes widened as they both shouted, "What!"

Nodoka said in a cheery tone, "Sweetie that's not right."

He nodded replying, "You're right my love, make that two months."

"Dad!"

"Uncle!"

Both girls said. Inuyasha smiled thinking, 'This again.'

Shuhan looked at them saying, "You want to shoot for three!" That stopped both of them when they shook their heads. Shuhan walked over to Inuyasha saying, "Since they'll be here on the castle grounds, you also won't be able to leave unless myself or Nodoka say otherwise. Understand?"

Inuyasha quickly nodded completely understanding. He moved away from Inuyasha and stood in front of Miroku who was standing straight trying to look as proper as he could. The king could see sweat drop down his forehead, "I like people like you. Choe doesn't just speak volumes about just anyone and Inuyasha wants you to be in the Royal Guard as well. You understand that you'll need an entire year of training."

Miroku nodded, to complete the training to become a Royal Guard you need a year of training, but the castle pays you after three months. That meant that Miroku would need to just survive the first three months before he can help the orphanage. He looked at Inuyasha who was looking back at him. Shuhan patted Miroku on his shoulder, saying, "You'll need to show up for training tomorrow morning before the sun rises. Get ready for a work out boy."

He couldn't believe it, he was in. Miroku was teared up from happiness, looking at Inuyasha again he saw the dog demon was smiling at him and whispered, 'Congratulations' to him. Miroku nodded and Shuhan walked back to his throne and sat down. He waved his hand saying, "Everyone in the room leave… Except for Nodoka and Inuyasha."

Doing as they were told everyone started to leave slowly out of the room. Kagome didn't want to leave, but her father's orders were absolute, she and Inuyasha looked at each other and he gave her a comforting smile. She smiled back and left the room, the guards left the room as well closing the doors.

Inuyasha saw the king loosen the top of his kimono saying, "Man this thing is irritating." Loosing it up enough he asked Inuyasha, "So this new sword of yours has an unbelievable amount of power?"

"I guess so. Today was my first day using it."

Nodoka said to Inuyasha, "You understand that this has put us in a predicament. The other cities on this island will want to use you now as a weapon."

"Yes I do my Queen."

Thinking to himself Shuhan said, "With the war between Mnemosyne and Artemis and our blockade stopping the trades of Artemis we'll be dragged into this war soon enough. There will be a demand that we take action and it is more than likely that you'll be called to war first."

Inuyasha understood. Shuhan sighed, "For now I can calm everyone, but I request that you do not use that sword unless you absolutely have to." Inuyasha nodded, "I understand sir."

The two stood from their thrones and walked over to Inuyasha. Nodoka said, "Come now it's a bit stuffy in here, let us get some fresh air." Shuhan replied, "After I change out of these clothes." Inuyasha opened the doors and let the two walk out first. They saw that Kagome, Sango, and Miroku were standing outside waiting for them to emerge. Shuhan told them, "Relax you three everything is fine. Now if you'll excuse us." Shuhan took his wife's hand and led her away.

Kagome asked, "Inu is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine Princess I promise." Inuyasha told her. Sango let out a sigh of relief and turned to Miroku, "Looks like you made it, but don't think you're out of the fire just yet. Being a Royal Guard will be difficult."

"I can handle it. Where will I be staying?" Miroku asked. Sango answered him, "You'll be staying in the barracks not to far from here. You have to be on your toes at all times because the drill instructor won't be giving anyone any slack."

Miroku looked at Inuyasha hoping that it was a joke and Inuyasha said, "He may be human, but for the year I was with him I even thought that I'd die under his command." Miroku was a bit shaken asking, "What's the man's name?"

Inuyasha, Kagome, and Sango looked at each other and they said at the same time, "Sgt. Henshi…"

Now his skin was becoming paler, the man they were talking about had the name Henshi which translated as 'Accidental Death'. Inuyasha put his arm around Miroku's and said, "Look when he wants to take you one on one as a demonstration to the others… Watch out for his right hook."

He broke away from Miroku and started to walk off passing two soldiers "These two soldiers will take you to the barracks. Good luck." Inuyasha walked away with Kagome walking right behind him. Sango said to Miroku, "Well I guess you've proved me wrong. I was sure that you wouldn't be able to handle under pressure, but what you did today was really gutsy."

Miroku smiled and bowed to her, "I'm glad I could impress Princess Sango."

She waved him off saying, "Yeah, yeah, just get to the barracks before Sgt. Henshi skins you alive." Miroku nodded nervously and was escorted by two soldiers who were waiting for Miroku escorted him to the barracks to begin his training. Sango watched him leave and let a small giggle escape her lips and turned to go relax.

* Night: Inuyasha's Room *

Inuyasha was in his room with his sword placed on the floor in front of him. He was mesmerized by the sword and the power that he was able to unleash from it. This frightened him, what if he couldn't control it like what happened when Kikyo betrayed the village. Blacking out and standing there covered head to toe in blood with a demonic sword in one hand and his master's spear in the other.

He still can't remember what happened that day, how he came into possession of a demonic sword. After burying all the people of the village and burning the soldiers he had destroyed the sword with his own strength so no one else could use it again. Inuyasha stood up and grabbed his sword and put it by his bed, thinking, 'War… If I go to war then I can take out his soldiers easily and finish that damn Onigumo bloodline once and for all.' He undressed himself and got into more comfortable clothes and sat down in just some shorts and no shirt.

His door opened and he looked to who his visitor was and saw Kagome walk in wearing her green night gown, "Hey Inu I just-" Kagome stopped when she saw Inuyasha was just in some shorts and her face went beat red and she turned around saying, "S-S-Sorry I should've knocked!"

Inuyasha stood up, "No need to be embarrassed Princess." He looked at the foot of his bed and saw his robe and quickly put it on, "You can look now."

Kagome turned her gaze to him slowly though her face was still a light shade of red, "Sorry I came in unannounced." Inuyasha shook his head, "Forget about it Princess. Was there something that you needed?"

Kagome walked over to his bed and sat down her eyes downcast to the floor. Inuyasha knew that when she made a face like that then she is either deep in thought or had something on her mind that she wanted to say. He sat down next to her asking, "Is everything okay?"

"Do you fight demons like that all the time?"

Inuyasha heard a saddened tone in her voice, he ran his hand through his long hair answering, "That strong… rarely. I fight demons of human size or a bit bigger regularly, even a few demons the size of ships can be a breeze on occasions. That Umibozu however was exceptionally strong. But don't worry Princess I don't think another one like that will appear for some time." He looked over at her and could still see the sad look on her face.

She turned her head to look at him and placed her delicate hand on his much larger hand, "Inu for once can you call me by my name?"

He was a bit taken back by her request, "It's not proper, I have to call everyone by their-"

"Please?" her voice soft and pleading. When she was a child he'd call her by her name, but when she started getting older he began to call her by her title and rarely would say Princess Kagome. She leaned her head on his shoulder, "Can you at least call me by my name when we are alone like this?"

He put both his hands on her shoulders and held her out so he could see her face, "Something is bothering you? What is it?" She didn't answer him, "I've told you, Sango, and Kohaku that if you can't tell anyone else about your problems than you can tell me. I am a good listener."

Kagome giggled, "You are a good listener, but to my request you seem to ignore it." Inuyasha smiled that she wasn't so sad looking. Kagome sighed, "What I really wanted to ask was… Well… What do you see me as?" The question kind of caught him off guard as he removed his hands from her shoulders. Kagome saw the look in his eyes and thought, 'I shouldn't have asked…' She stood up and said, "Never mind Inu it was a strange question I know. I'll leave now."

She turned around to leave, but she felt his hands come up and gently take hold of her shoulders, she froze in her spot. Inuyasha took a deep breath and answered her, "I see you…. I see you as a woman, someone precious to me, someone I want to protect with my life. You and your family treat me like one of your own and… I want to make sure that your lives are very happy."

Kagome turned around and looked at him with a smile, "You see me as a woman?"

He blushed a bit and nodded, "Yes… Kagome."

It was her turn to blush again, she took a step closer and did something that caught even her off guard. Standing on her tip toes she kissed Inuyasha on his lips and he stood motionless his eyes wide open. It was brief as she took a few steps back still smiling, "Goodnight Inu." She walked to the door and he whispered, "Goodnight. Kagome."

She glanced at him once last time before she left his room, the moment she closed the door she brought her fingers to her lips and thought to herself, 'It tasted, sweet.' Satisfied she walked away from his room back to her own. Inuyasha however remained rooted to where he received his kiss from Kagome still in shock. When reality hit him he sat back down on his bed and smiled to himself a new feeling welling up inside of him one he had never felt before. Laying down on his bed looking up at the ceiling he said to himself, "Kagome." liking how it sounded.

**•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•Ω•**

**(A/N) Please Read**

Sorry for the very, very late update. It's inexcusable and I greatly apologize! Please if you could check out my InuKag one shot story I had written entitled **'Hypnotizing'** it is my first one shot and first song fix and I do hope that you will enjoy reading it. Thank you for your patience and I need to get a move on for the next chapter. Thank you my loyal readers.


End file.
